The research was conducted to investigate the children's consumption pattern and preference of Korean rice cake by analyzing the relation among their socio-demographic backgrounds. This study provides basic information for systematic development and wide spread of Korean rice cake as a traditonal Korean food. A self completed questionnaire survey of 639 elementary school students in Seoul was undertaken. A survey questionnaire consisted of two parts including demographic backgrounds, children's consumption pattern and preference of Korean rice cake. A likert scale of one to five was used to determine the childrem's preference of Korean rice cake. Statistical data analysis was done using the SPSS/PC program for descriptive analysis and 2 test. Approximately half of the participants were male (51.5%) and 5-degree year (50.7%) students. 77.2% of respondents were nuclear families. The results of eating frequency rate showed that 57.1% students had Korean rice cake once a month followed by once a week (18.8%), once per two months (12.2%) and once per six months (10.5%). The major reasons for having Korean rice cake were good taste (55.2%), healthy food (22.3), our traditional food (17.3%), and etc (2.2%) in order. Average children's preference score of 14 Korean rice cakes was 2.82±1.59 out of 5, with the highest score of 4.30 for Songpyun and the lowest score of 1.06 for Bukumi.

• 이진실 | Lee, Jin-Sil