In this study, hardness, which is one of the most important texture properties of meat products, was investigated in order to evaluate the potential of using crushed meat products as food for seniors. The hardness of crushed meat products in the Korean market, such as hamburg steak (12 products), meatball (8 products), ddeokgalbi (rib patties, 13 products), and wanja (meat dumplings, 10 products) were analyzed through a texture analyzer. Also, the hardness of UDF 1st grade hamburg steak (Japanese care food) was assessed in comparison with the texture characteristics of crushed meat products. The mean value of hardness of 43 crushed meat products purchased in the Korean market was 64,733±12,319 N/m2 (23,650-102,780 N/m2) while the hardness of UDF 1st grade product was 50,910±4,990 N/m2. The hardness of 16 crushed meat products was not significantly different from that of UDF 1st grade products (p<0.05). On the other hand, crushed meat products had higher relative standard deviation (RSD, %) values of hardness (mean: 19.6%, from 7.8 to 43.1%) than the RSD of UDF 1st grade products (9.8%) except for three products. Therefore, crushed meat products could be a developable “food for seniors” if deviations of texture are minimized. These findings on texture properties could be an effective data base for the development and quality control of “food for seniors” using meat materials.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the LOHAS tendency of new seniors' and its effects on the attitude and purchase intention for environmental-friendly food materials. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey from random sample of 162 senior customers in Seoul and Kyunggi area. The LOHAS tendency of new seniors can be divided into three factors; environmental-friendly, sustainability and sociality. Environmental problems affected the environmental-friendly factor the most while manufacturing techniques for sustainable products and recycling habits were key variables for the sustainability factor. The idea of companies sharing their value system of LOHAS tendency was the most significant for the sociality factor. Each of these LOHAS tendency factors influenced the purchase intention of the new seniors.