Background of Research
As a response to the changing food consumption behaviors, it is necessary to conduct multi-faceted surveys on a continued basis to identify the food consumption trends. However, the government approved statistics regarding food consumption has focused only on the survey on food spending, while the surveys on other areas remained very insufficient. So far there hasn’t been a survey performed to show the overall aspects of food consumption behaviors.
To understand the food consumption behavior in details and leverage such understanding as useful tools for food production and related policy development, the representative sampling for food consumption survey needs to be pursued, and with the samples surveys should be conducted on a regular basis for research and analysis on food consumption behaviors.

Method of Research
For the food consumption behavior survey, the Enumeration Districts(ED) and the list of households used by Statistics Korea’s 2010 Census were taken as sample extraction tools, and the samples were finalized based on the stratified sampling method.
The areas included in the survey are the consumers’ perception on their food consumption patterns(with regards to food choices, nutritions, health, etc.); the food purchase and consumption behaviors; food consumer characteristics; eat-out pattern; consumers’ self-evaluation on their food consumption patterns; current status of food consumption eduction and promotion; and key policy issues. In this study, a two-step survey was designed. First, the household-level survey was designed to ask questions to the main food purchaser of a household regarding food consumption status within family and the characteristics of the household. Secondly, the household member-level survey was designed to ask questions to any household members who are middle school students or older with regards to their food consumption status outside of home and individual perceptions on food consumption. When the respondents are adolescents, a different set of questionnaire was used considering their limited experience in terms of food consumption compared with adults.

Research Results and Implications
The survey has found that 38.9% of the households surveyed buy foods twice to three times per week and 36.7% of them buy foods once a week, which indicates that the majority of the households surveyed or 75.6% purchase foods once to three times per week. For the question on the frequent place to visit for grocery shopping, 29.8% said they buy foods at medium or small-sized community grocery stores or supermarkets, followed by 27.8% who buy foods at large-scaled discount stores and 27.2% who visit traditional open markets. No significant distinction is found when it comes to the places of grocery shopping among the respondents. 15.8% of the households surveyed buy their foods on the Internet and they gave 71.4 points and 70.4 points as a score for price level and their satisfaction with quality respectively, and the scores given by online grocery shoppers are higher than the environmentally friendly food buyers who account for 37.6% of the respondents and gave 59.4 points for price level and 69.4 points for their satisfaction with quality. Almost a half of the households surveyed(48.6%) are found to consume functional foods, and in particular specific food supplements such as vitamin(67.8%) and red ginseng/ginseng(46.3%) were consumed at the high percentages.
For the frequency of rice purchase, the households who purchase rice every two to three months account for 44.5%. Housewives consider price first upon purchase of rice(26.0%), followed by the location of production(17.8%), the country of origin(15.1%) and the types of rice(12.8%). For the frequency of vegetable purchase, 35.7% of the households surveyed replied twice to three times per week and they tend to buy in bulk compared to the small-package purchase(57.5%). For the frequency of fruit purchase, 41.4% said once a week. Adult household members are found to prefer watermelons and apples, while the household members aged 20 or below relatively like tangerines, strawberries, oranges and bananas more. The key consumer considerations for vegetable and fruit purchase include freshness and price. When it comes to fruits, the level of sugar contents is also considered by 14.5% of those surveyed. The key consumer considerations for meat purchase are freshness(25.8%) and price(23.6%). Almost a half of the households surveyed(48.1%) showed no intention to purchase imported beef from the United Stats, but a high percentage of the respondents(42.7%) expressed “intention to eat” for imported beef from Australia. 62.2% of the households surveyed answered “no intention to eat” imported pork. It is found that Kimchi is mostly made by households on their own(51.5%), but still many households are getting Kimchi for their own consumption from ‘family members/relatives.’
Housewives surveyed gave 68.8 points for their satisfaction level with the current food consumption patterns. At the individual level, adolescents’ satisfaction score for their food consumption pattern was 70.4 points, which is higher than the adults’ satisfaction score of 69.2 points. Adults are interested in whether food materials are domestically produced(71 points), and the interest in locally produced(64 points) and environmentally friendly(63 points) food materials are at the similar levels. By contrast, adolescents showed relatively lower level of interest in the characteristics of food materials such as domestic production, local production or green production.
Those who said the family eat-out twice to three times per month account for 36.7% and food taste was regarded as the most considered factor to choose restaurants. The popular eat-out places for families are either barbecue restaurants or Korean restaurants. If a householder is 30 years old or younger or the household is a high-income family, family restaurants are more likely chosen. The single-member households tend to choose a snack bar for dining-out. About 56% of the households surveyed use food delivery or take-out services for family dining. When the number of household members is higher and the monthly average household income is at the KRW 4 million level, families tend to use more of food delivery or take-out services. The primary choices of delivery/take-out foods are chicken dishes including fried chicken. Those who don’t use food delivery/take-out services cited high prices(20.5%), hygiene(18.2%), and over-use of chemical seasoning(16.6%) as the reasons for avoiding food delivery/take-out services.
The questions on food-related consumer policy show that both adults(66.5%) and adolescents(59.1%) chose ‘ensuring food safety’ as the most important policy. Around three out of ten people surveyed have the perception that the Korean foods are safe in general, and 50.7% of the adult respondents expressed their intention to pay higher prices for safer foods. On the scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is the highest score for perceived safety, adult respondents gave 3.5 points for the perceived safety on domestic foods, while adolescents gave 3.6 for the same category, both of which are relatively high scores. Imported foods were given 2.5 points for the perceived safety of individual food items, on the scale of 1 to 5, showing the lower scores than their domestic counterparts. For the question on who should play the most important role in food safety control, the food producers top the list followed by the central government, food distributors and food retailers. Concerning the food labeling, consumers are found to check prices and the countries of origin most upon purchase of vegetables and meat but they check the expiry date and prices as the priority consideration upon purchase of processed foods. When the awareness of food labeling programs was questioned, it is found that the country of origin labeling system(88.9%) and the organic farming authentication system(79.8%) are the most well known. 38.9 % of the respondents chose lower grades of elementary school as the best timing for basic food education, followed by higher grades of elementary schools(20.0%), early childhood(15.9%) and middle school students(15.6%) respectively.
The survey on food consumption behavior is expected to provide the basis for the government when it establishes food policies and for companies when they conduct market analysis. In order to improve the credibility and usability of the survey outcomes, feedbacks will be collected from the users of statistics and the survey system will be improved accordingly. In addition, close follow-up management and disclosure of survey statistics will be conducted down the road.


Researcher(s): Kyei-Im Lee, Yun-Jae Hwang, Dong-Weon Kim, Hyun-Jung Ban, In-Ho Park
Research Period: 2013. 1. ∼ 2013. 12.
E-mail address: lkilki@krei.re.kr