The purpose of this study was to develop a dietary education program, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the education program for children from low-income families. A total of 242 children (122 education groups and 120 control groups) were run six times a dietary education program from April to December 2018, and a questionnaire was administered before and after the education to evaluate effectiveness. Elementary school students were the most prevalent in the education and the control group. In the education group, the body height and weigh were 137.27 cm and 33.69 kg, respectively, and in the control group the body height and weight were 143.48 cm and 40.64 kg, respectively. The education group showed positive change in dietary self-efficacy and dietary knowledge compared to the control group. In particular, ‘I can have meals regularly’ (Education Group: 4.00 points from 3.71 points) and 'I can choose fruits instead of cookies candies as snacks (Education Group: 4.01 points from 3.70 points) The score increased after participation in the program. In the change of nutritional and hygiene knowledge of children, the education group scored 3.63 of 10 points before education, but the score significantly increased to 5.70 points after education(p<0.001).

The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality attributes and importance that affects their satisfaction with respect to lunchboxes amongst children from low-income families in Korea. In case of 1-3rd-grade elementary school, 57.1% received lunch box through the community child center, while 45.2%, 68.5% and 80.7% of 4-6th-elementary school, middle school, and high school students received the lunch box from home, respectively. Typically, in 40.2% of all grades, the time to eat the meal was within 1~2 hours of delivery, and 34.0% consumed the lunch within 2~6 hours of delivery. With respect to intake of the contents of lunchboxes, 72.0% of the participants answered that they ate 80% of the lunchboxes delivered and 24.9% only ate 50% of the content of lunchboxes. The largest leftover were vegetables (26.9%), and the reason for leaving food was ‘do not like to eat (36.1%)’ followed by ‘no taste (32.6%)’. Regarding improvements in delivery lunchboxes, elementary school students selected ‘taste’, while middle school and high school students selected 'variety of menu'. The ‘nutrition (3.69 point)’ of the lunchboxes was the highest satisfaction and the ‘variety of menu (3.34 point)’ was the lowest. In all grades, ‘nutrition’ and ‘hygiene’ were considered to be important as quality attributes of the delivery lunchboxes, and satisfaction was also high. On the other hand, in the 1-3rd-grade elementary school, ‘variety of menu’ and ‘amount of side dish’ were important but satisfaction was low. The 4-6th-grade elementary school, middle school and high school students stated that ‘taste’and ‘variety of menu’ were important, but satisfaction was low.

This study investigated the needs to improve the quality of foodservice management in community child centers (CCCs), in accordance to the area where the CCC was located. The people in charge of foodservice management of 466 community child centers undertook a web survey, between July to August 2016. Most centers used menus from the Headquarters of Community Child Center (50.0%) or Center for Children’s Foodservice Management (34.1%). Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were conducted to assess the requirement for improving the quality of foodservice management at the CCCs. Four factors were analyzed: ‘food material and facility management’, ‘administration management’, ‘menu management’, and ‘human resources management’. In large cities, ‘administration management’ and ‘menu management’ were found to affect quality improvement. In small cities, none of the factors assessed were effective in improvement. ‘human resources management’ had a significant influence on improving the quality of the foodservice in rural areas. The results of this study show that there was a difference in the quality improvement of the foodservice management in the centers, with respect to the location of the center. Therefore, this study can be used as basic data to establish the support policy for improving the quality of foodservice management in community child centers.

The aims of this study were to investigate usage status, menu preference, quality evaluation and satisfaction of homedelivered meal box for children from low-income families in Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea. A total of 320 children and their guardians who had received home-delivered meal boxes participated in 2015. A total of respondents (62.2%) were children and teenagers, and 37.8% were guardians. The 47.7% of children and 43.8% of guardians were using the home delivery service more than one year. Most of the children and guardians answered ‘eat almost’, ‘eat all meals’ served meal box, 75.3%, 81.8%, respectively. After receiving the meal box at home, 35.2% of children consumed meals within 1~2 hours, whereas 32.8% of the guardians were ate within 2~6 hours. It was founded that ‘throw away leftovers’ was the highest and followed ‘give it others’ in a way to treat leftovers. The results of preference survey on meats, seafood, showed that ‘chicken nugget’ (4.07) and ‘stir-fried fish cake with vegetable’ (3.63) were the highest points for children, whereas ‘grilled LA beef ribs’ (3.98) and ‘stir-fried anchovies’ (3.72) were the highest point for guardians. ‘Seasoned leaves marinated in soy sauce’ was the highest preference among vegetables and another dish for respondents. Frozen products were the most preferred types of meal boxes on the menu. In the quality evaluation of home-delivered meal box, although satisfaction with service and packaging of the meal box were high, the satisfaction of food quality was relatively low.

This study was conducted to investigate the awareness and preference regarding Korean Samgyetang by the Chinese. An online survey was conducted to determine the awareness regarding Korean Samgyetang among the local Chinese, and a consumer preference test was performed to design the recipe of Samgyetang for Chinese students in Korea during April 2016. The results of the online survey showed that 88.2 % and 88.4 % of local Chinese men and women, respectively, were aware of Korean Samgyetang. Samgyetang recognition by the local residents of China was the highest in the Hubei region that includes Beijing. Traditional Samgyetang received the highest preference and Samgyetang with mung bean received the lowest preference in the preference test based on the Samgyetang type. In consumer preference tests among Chinese students, Samgyetang with broth of chicken feet (Sample-1) and Samgyetang with medicinal herbs (Sample-3) showed high acceptability than Samgyetang in water (Sample-2) in terms of the overall sensory properties. According to the results of the electronic tongue, Sample-1 showed a high value in terms of the strength of the saltiness and Sample-3 showed a high value in terms of the strength of bitterness and sweetness. Sample-2 showed a high value in terms of the strength of umami and sourness.

This study was undertaken to examine the knowledge about food culture and intakes of traditional food in Korean and Japanese elementary school students. In 2012 and 2013, a total of 265 students were surveyed, consisting of 73 Korean fifth graders and 192 Japanese sixth graders. The questionnaire comprised of queries on general items, the recognition and sampling of traditional and celebration foods, the knowledge about the partner country's food culture, and the frequency of consuming the partner country's foods. As a result of this study, the frequency of consuming their own country's traditional foods for Korean children (3.1 out of 5.0 points) and Japanese children (3.2 out of 5.0 points) was similar to each other. Japanese children reported to eat Korean foods (2.9 points) more frequently than those of Korean children to eat Japanese foods (2.4 out of 5.0 points) (p<0.001). However, the Korean children reported to have more experience on given typical Japanese foods than Japanese children reported about Korean foods. Further studies are needed for the perception on traditional foods in Korean and Japanese children. The results of this study can be used as a basic data to succeed and develop traditional food cultures.