The standardization of food ingredients in the procurement system is essential to maintain the quality of food services. Currently, school food services in Korea do not have such a standardized system, which results in inconsistency of the procurement procedure of food ingredients. This study examined how school foodservice nutritionists perceive the standardization of food ingredients in the procurement system. In particular, this study investigated school foodservice nutritionists’ perception on the appropriateness, convenience, and necessity of newly proposed standardized procurement system consisting of a classification and attribute system. A total of 311 nutritionists from 123 elementary schools, 99 middle schools, and 84 high schools were surveyed via both online and offline from June 16-24, 2016. The major findings of the study are as follows. First, three quarters of the nutritionists perceived the newly proposed standardized procurement system to be necessary, while approximately sixty percent of the respondents reported that the newly proposed standardized procurement system is convenient. More than half of the respondents perceived the newly proposed standardized procurement system to be appropriate. The results suggest that the new standardized system directs a better way in terms of the classification and attribute systems of food ingredients. This study suggests that the standardization of food ingredients should be implemented at the operation of school food services.

The purpose of menu labeling is to offer eating environments with improved healthy food selection. Similar to U.S. policies, the Korea government enforces the Special Act on Children’s Food Safety and Nutrition for provision of nutritional labeling in chain restaurants. Considering the importance of dining services for college students and their interests in health, this study examined college students’ perception toward nutrition information provided by university dining services. A survey was conducted for university students. Students' recognition of nutrition information for university dining services was lower than recognition of nutrition information for commercial food services. The most common reason cited by students for considering nutrition information of university dining services was customer rights, followed by health maintenance. Students showed a high tendency to use nutrition information of university dining services. College students’ motivation for knowing nutrition information of university dining services included health and value interests. Students’ knowledge of nutrition had a positive effect on their intention to know nutrition information. The findings of this study offer university administrators and contract food service management companies directions for developing menu labeling for university dining services.

Restaurants implement menu labeling to provide nutritional information to customers in an attempt to help customers select healthy menu items. Considering the increase in food-away-from-home consumption, the purpose of this study was to identify motivators and barriers in restaurant customers regarding use of menu labeling. Data were collected from a survey on restaurant customers in Seoul, Korea. The findings of this study indicate that customers used menu labeling for health reasons. However, barriers to using menu labeling were identified as small font size, difficulty in locating nutritional information display, and difficulty in interpreting nutritional information. In addition, they also suggested expanding the scope of menu labeling for restaurants by including chain restaurants with less than 100 units. The findings of this study offer strategies for the government to improve menu labeling practices for customers.

The purpose of the study is to determine how consumers perceive certification marks for agricultural products. The study examined three agricultural product certifications, such as the certification of environment-friendly agricultural products, Good Agricultural Procuts (GAP) certification mark, and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) certification mark. A survey was utilized for data collection from adults over the age of 19 in November, 2013. A total of 390 questionnaires were distributed, and 300 of those were obtained for an analysis of the study. The results were as follows. First, consumers' awareness of, image of, and credibility on the agricultural products with the certification marks were not significantly different among the three certification marks except consumers’ awareness. Second, consumers’ purchase intentions for and willingness to pay for the agricultural products with the certification marks were not significantly different among the three certification marks. Third, these variables were not significantly different between buying group and non-buying group except consumers’ awareness. Lastly, buying group and non-buying group were significantly different only in gender and marital status. The findings offer implications to the food and food service industry regarding consumers’ purchase of certified agricultural products. Further, the study enforces the roles of food industry for environment.

The purposes of this study were to: (a) measure the levels of job satisfaction with five facets of a job: the work itself, promotion, pay, supervision and co-workers and (b) investigate relationships between job characteristics and job satisfaction levels of the dietitians in school foodservice. Subjects consisted of 151 dietitians, with 91 in Seoul and 60 in KyoungKi-Do. The survey form was developed on modifying Job Descriptive Index developed by Smith, Kendall, Hulin and Job Characteristics Inventory developed by Sims, Szilagy, Keller. The responding rate was 81.7%. Data were analyzed for frequencies, means, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation and multiple regression using SPSS PC Package. The results of this study were as follows: 1) Less than a half of the sample(40.9%) were 31 to 35 years, married were 62% and junior college graduates were 33.9%. 2) A striking majority of the respondents(81.7%) ranked work itself as the the most important aspect of their jobs. 3) The dietitians were the most satisfied with work itself, then supervision, co-workers, wage and promotion in decreasing order. 4) In relations of demographic factors to the job satisfaction, satisfactions with wage and co-workers were found significantly related to education. 5) Task identity was the most prevalent job characteristics. 6) The R2 for the multiple regression model was 0.26, indicating that 26% of the variance in job satisfaction could be accounted for the job characteristics. This model showed that friendship of job characteristics made the greatest contributions. The second was variety and the third was dealing with others. Especially dealing with others was negatively related to job satisfaction.