This study aimed to investigate the dietary changes among adults living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Korea. An online survey was conducted to examine dietary changes before (in 2019) and during (in 2021) the pandemic. The data from 337 adults living alone who responded to the survey were used for analysis. The proportion of the respondents reporting frequent food consumption at convenience stores (≥3 times/week) increased during the pandemic (p=0.024), and the proportion of those frequently eating ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook food (≥3 times/week) was more than doubled (p<0.001). Additionally, the proportion of those frequently consuming delivered food (≥3 times/week) increased by 2.5 times (p<0.001). In conclusion, the dietary habits of adults living alone changed significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have a negative impact on their health. Therefore, the development of customized nutrition management programs to improve the dietary habits of adults living alone during emergencies like a pandemic is deemed necessary. This study can serve as a foundation for understanding the dietary changes of adults living alone in prolonged crisis.

This study was conducted to explore the change in the market issues on HMR (Home Meal Replacements) using local foods after the COVID-19 outbreak. Online text data were collected from internet news, social media posts, and web documents before (from January 2016 to December 2019) and after (from January 2020 to November 2022) the COVID- 19 outbreak. TF-IDF analysis showed that ‘Trend’, ‘Market’, ‘Consumption’, and ‘Food service industry’ were the major keywords before the COVID-19 outbreak, whereas ‘Wanju-gun’, ‘Distribution’, ‘Development’, and ‘Meal-kit’ were main keywords after the COVID-19 outbreak. The results of topic modeling analysis and categorization showed that after the COVID-19 outbreak, the ‘Market’ category included ‘Non-face-to-face market’ instead of ‘Event,’ and ‘Delivery’ instead of ‘Distribution’. In the ‘Product’ category, ‘Marketing’ was included instead of ‘Trend’. Additionally, in the ‘Support’ category, ‘Start-up’ and ‘School food service’ appeared as new topics after the COVID-19 outbreak. In conclusion, this study showed that meaningful change had occurred in market issues on HMR using local foods after the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, governments should take advantage of such market opportunity by implementing policy and programs to promote the development and marketing of HMR using local foods.

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) is the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council. CAFF conducts Monitoring, Assessment, Policy, and expert group activities to preserve Arctic biodiversity and ensure the sustainability of biological resources and communicates the results to governments and indigenous peoples. The main tasks of CAFF consist of monitoring (Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program), assessment (Arctic Biodiversity Assessment) and strategic projects (Arctic Migratory Bird Initiative, AMBI). Korea has been directly participating in the AMBI since 2015 after acquiring observer status of the Arctic Council in 2013. The AMBI aims to preserve habitats on migration routes used by breeding birds in the Arctic and prevent illegal hunting. Thus, observer countries on migratory routes are directly participating in the project. When selecting priorities for participation in Arctic cooperation projects by 2030, Korea should consider continuing participation in AMBI and participating in the “CAFF Youth Program” in connection with the Arctic Academy program operated by Korea’s public institutes.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs introduced the Agrifood Voucher in 2020. The Agrifood Voucher is the program that provides vouchers to purchase selected food items with dietary management education. This study aimed to explore value and meaning of dietary management based on the Agrifood Voucher. First, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program of the United States and the Agrifood Voucher of Korea were reviewed. Second, various terms used for describing the purpose of food assistance programs were comparatively reviewed and ‘food and nutrition security’, together with the corresponding Korean term, was proposed to be the most appropriate term for the purpose. Subsequently, the value and meaning of dietary management based on the Agrifood Voucher were presented as enhancing food and nutrition security of the vulnerable. Diverse education programs should be developed and implemented to improve the dietary management capacity of the Agrifood Voucher recipients in order to properly realize the meaning and value of dietary management based on the Agrifood Voucher in the future.

This study examined Korean employees’ meal structure characterized by mealtime, meal places, and companions. The data from 19,692 time diaries, recorded by 9,846 employees aged 19-64 years for two days in the 2014 Korean Time Use Survey, were analyzed for working days and non-working days. Approximately two-thirds of Korean employees ate meals three times a day on both working and non-working days. The breakfast and lunch-times on working days were distributed within two hours, but the dinner time on working days and all three meals on non-working days were dispersed across a three-hour range. Male employees spent three minutes on meal preparation on working days, whereas females spent 30 minutes. On working days, 88% of breakfasts and 67% of dinners were eaten at home. For lunches, 46% were eaten at restaurants, and 42% were at workplaces. The breakfast on working days showed the highest percentage of eating alone (40%) and the dinner on non-working days appeared highest in the percentage of eating with families (69%). The characteristics of Korean employees’ meal structure appeared different on working days and non-working days. Such characteristics should be considered in the process of planning nutrition policies and programs for employees.

This study investigated the effect of offering eco-friendly fashion items on consumers’ perceived image of stores and their intention to purchase food in a hybrid cafe setting. The data were collected using an online survey of 465 adults aged 20 to 49 years. In order to compare ‘a general cafe’ where only food is sold and ‘a hybrid cafe’ which offers eco-friendly fashion items as well as food, we developed two store types (general×hybrid) with two store designs (modern×eco-friendly) as stimuli, resulting in four scenarios. The results indicated that offering eco-friendly fashion items at a cafe did not significantly affect consumers’ perceived eco-friendly image of the store. Further, this negatively affected consumers’ perceived healthy and tasty images of the store and intention to purchase food. Such negative effects on the healthy and tasty images of the store increased in the store with a modern design. In conclusion, offering eco-friendly fashion items at cafes may not contribute to enhancing the stores’ images or sales.

This study aimed to assess the nutritional quality of breakfast among Korean school-aged children and adolescents depending on eating together as a family, based on the 2013-2014 Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey. One day 24-hour recall data of 1,831 children and adolescents aged from 6 to 17 years were collected. The nutritional quality of breakfast was analyzed and compared between Family Breakfast Group (FBG, n=1,410) and Eating-alone Breakfast Group (EBG, n=421). The results showed that age, family structure, number of family members, and frequency of breakfast were associated with eating breakfast as a family. The calorie intake from breakfast explained 19% and 16% of the daily intake for FBG and EBG, respectively. The percentages of children and adolescents consuming Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin C, Niacin, and Iron less than 1/4 of the Estimated Average Requirements were significantly lower in FBG than in EBG. The average numbers of serving for “Grains” and “Vegetables” food groups and the average Dietary Diversity Score were significantly higher in FBG than in EBG. Overall, the results indicated that eating breakfast as a family is positively associated with nutritional quality of breakfast among Korean school-aged children and adolescents.

This study aims to investigate the effect of the core capability of products in eco-friendly stores on perceived CSR and consumers’ purchasing behavior. It is also to verify the moderating mediation effect of store type (multi-category store vs. single-category store). The results indicate that generally, in eco-friendly stores, consumers perceive the core competency of the products, which increases perceived CSR and purchasing intention. In the single-category store (i.e., fashion only) compared to the multi-category store (i.e., food and fashion), consumers perceive that the core capability and CSR are higher and thus they have higher purchase intention.

This study examined the historical changes of and dietitians’ needs for the Life Cycle-based Dietary Guidelines for Koreans. Content analysis of relevant documents, a survey of 307 dietitians, and in-depth interviews with eight dietitians were conducted. The dietary guidelines published between 2003 and 2004 included one set of common guidelines and several sets of dietary action guides corresponding to six target groups: pregnant and lactating women, infants and toddlers, children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. The guidelines were revised between 2008 and 2011 and consisted of six sets of guidelines for the target groups without common guidelines. The dietitians considered five or six as appropriate numbers of guidelines for each group. Needs for separate guidelines for women of child-bearing age and male workers were reported. The dietitians preferred one set of common guidelines with specific action guides for each target group and wanted easier and more specific messages to be included in the new guidelines. It is suggested that the Life Cycle-based Dietary Guidelines for Koreans should be revised to reflect such dietitians’ needs.

Food environment has been going through significant changes with the introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This study was conducted to investigate the current development status of ICT related to food delivery service by analyzing the relevant registered patents according to consumer buying process. Patents registered between 2002 and 2016 were searched with ‘food’ and ‘delivery’ as main keywords through Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (www.kipris.or.kr). The search resulted in 624 patents among which 219 patents were related to food delivery service; 108 patents based on ICT were selected and analyzed. The patents were examined by applicant and year. The patents were classified into the six steps of consumer buying process: ‘need recognition’, ‘information search’, ‘evaluation’, ‘choice’, ‘purchase’, and ‘postpurchase evaluation’. Patents belonging to more than one step were coded to all the corresponding steps. The patents were registered mainly by domestic companies (50.9%) and individuals (35.2%), having shown dramatic increase of registration since 2012. Over 2/3 (67.6%) of the patents were related to the ‘purchase’ step. About 32% were associated with the 'information search' step. Approximately 18% of the patents were relevant to the 'evaluation' and 'choice’ steps, respectively. The numbers of patents related to the 'postpurchase evaluation (13.9%)’ and 'need recognition (12.0%)' steps were relatively low. The current ICTs related to food delivery service in Korea were largely associated with service providers' profit generation rather than consumers' benefit. There is still much room for technology development that could contribute to increasing consumers' benefit.