This study was conducted to develop food for the elderly, which is easier to chew and swallow, using gelification. Various foods for the elderly with chewing and swallowing difficulties were used for sensory assessment. The sensory panel consisted of 10 dieticians (10 women) working in nursing care facilities. The sensory optimal composite recipes were determined by the central composite design (CCD). The optimum formulation of hot pepper paste stir fried pork calculated by the numerical and graphical method was 1.48 g of sugar and 18.97 g of hot pepper paste. The optimum formulation of seasoned spinach was 8.0 g of sesame oil and 5.41 g of soy sauce. Moisture content, hardness, and adhesiveness of hot pepper paste stir fried pork was 76.49%, 2.50, and －1.20, respectively. Moisture content, hardness, and adhesiveness of seasoned spinach was 83.48%, 2.27, and －1.17, respectively. This study provides the basic materials for the development of easily chewable and swallowable foods for the elderly, which can reduce the risk of food going down the wrong pipe, and the preference can be improved by eating solid food instead of porridge or liquid food. The development of food for the elderly, which takes the difficulties in chewing and swallowing among the elderly into consideration and reflects their preference and has sufficient amount of nutrients, is important to enable the elderly to enjoy their meals and it is one of the biggest challenges in Korea, as Korean society is aging rapidly.

The preparation method for traditional kochujang (fermented hot pepper-soybean paste) at home were surveyed by 1,436 housewives through the country by premade questionnaires. The kochujang meju (Korean style soybean Koji for kochujang) were made by solely soybean (45.3% of respondents) or soybean with rice (26.3%) from September to November (52.2%) or December to February (32.7%). The shape of meju was either doughnut (28.4%) or brick (25.6%) type. Kochujang making seasons were either from March to May (56.6%) or December to February (25.0%) and it was prepared in proportion of mostly 6~10% meju powder (32%) with over 20% of red pepper powder (57.2%) prepared by seed removed dry red pepper. Subsidiary ingredients for kochujang making were boiled waxy rice (73.5%), malt (33.3%), corn syrup (18.9%) or corn syrup with malt (21.9%). After mixing all ingredients, kochujang in clay pot were occasionally exposed to the sun for fermentation for 3~4 months (35.0%) or 1~2 months (34.7%).

General views of 1,436 housewives respondents through the country on commercial kochujang (fermented hot pepper-soybean paste) were surveyed by questionnaires. The 65.0% of total respondents had experience of purchasing commercial kochujang on the market, mostly super market (43.0%) of respondents, and the respondents who has job and live in apartment purchased the commercial products more often than the others (80.5%). The reason for purchasing commercial products were convenience (36.1%) and short of time (13.0%). The critera for purchasing commercial product were previous experience (40.1%) and well known trademark (20.6%) and not for purchasing were concerning of noxiousness (29.2%) and inferior taste (25.0%). Respondents prefered glass packing (44.3%) and plastic bottle (20.2%) of 500 g pack for single usage (42.3%). The most important standards for kochujang taste were pungency (59.1%) and savory taste (28.6%). The problems indicated to commercial products were inferior taste (32.2%), especially too sweet (52.6%), and safety (20.6%).