This paper investigates the impact of the scarcity information (Lynn, 1991) of a brand in its originating market on the pre- and post-taste evaluations of an imported food brand. We expect a positive effect of scarcity information on food brand evaluations, mainly based on naïve economic theory and the ‘scarce product is good’ heuristic. Four experimental studies confirmed this expectation. Study 1 shows that pre-taste evaluations and price judgment are higher when a new food brand is scarce (vs. when it is not) in its originating foreign market. Study 2 finds that both pre- and post-taste evaluations are higher in the scarce (vs. non-scarce) information condition. Study 3 supports the effect of the scarcity effect (vs. the popularity effect) and supports the mediating role of perceived scarcity. Study 4 replicated study 3 using a different sample and target food. Finally, a single-paper meta-analysis confirmed the strong effect of scarcity information on the evaluation of a food product. This research has several theoretical and practical implications. First, it can extend our understanding of how a nonfood- related characteristic determines food evaluation and preference (Wansink, 2004). Second, we separate the impact of scarcity information from popularity information on food evaluations. Finally, we extend the role of scarcity information to taste evaluation and suggest that the type of information can differentially influence pre- and post-taste evaluations.

The Korean National Residue Program consists of three sampling plans for domestic and imported foods of animal origin : monitoring, surveillance/enforcement and exploratory testing. Monitoring and surveillance/enforcement testing programs are routinely implemented by 17 Provincial Veterinary Services for domestic products and two regional offices of Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency (QIA) for imported products, respectively. The exploratory testing is designed to test substances which are not included in the list of monitoring and enforcement testing programs controlled by headquarter of QIA. In 2010, the exploratory testing was carried out in domestic and imported foods of animal origin for 24 veterinary drugs including florfenicol, clavulanic acid, four quinolones (nalidixic acid, difloxacin, marbofloxacin, orbifloxacin), two anthelmintics (closantel, levamisole), two sedatives (azaperone, carazolol), six glucocorticoids (dexamethasone, betamethasone, flumethasone, prednisone, prednisolone, methylprednisolone), eight non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (phenylbutazone, paracetamol, carprofen, flunixin, ketoprofen, meloxicam, tolfenamic acid, acetylsalicylic acid). In the total of 1,153 domestic samples, only florfenicol was detected from 17 pig muscles at levels of 0.2～614 ng/g. Of 17 positive pig muscles, 16 samples were non-violative and one sample was violative. In the total of 1,065 imported samples, florfenicol was detected at 0.4 ng/g in one pork. Also, flunixin was detected at 22 ng/g in one beef.

This study was carried out to evaluate the consumer recognition with regard to the safety management for imported foods. In order to evaluate the effect of the prgram on consumer education, the program was practiced for 89 female college students in Seoul, Korea. The participants were given an instruction with materials on imported food safety, including the safety management of imported foods and their distribution. The results showed that the participants achieved a greater understanding of imported foods. In particular, they had firmly grasped the importance of expiration date in selecting imported foods. Before the instruction, 50.6% of total participants blamed the Korean government for the problems arising from imported foods; only 18.0% placed the blame on individuals or businesses importing from foreign countries. After the instruction, 39.3% had blamed the individuals or businesses importing from foreign countries. Furthermore, 36.0% had disapproved of the foods that are imported from China before the instruction, while 32.6% found objectionable the views on the illegally distributed foods; 29.2% criticized the junk foods that target children (after the instruction). In addition, the level of participant satisfaction via-a-vis imported foods safety supervision had improved from 2.76 ± 1.59(before the instruction) to 3.37 ± 1.58(after the instruction). The results indicate that consumers are concerned with the imported foods that contain adulterated or forbidden substances and the illegally distributed foods from foreign countries. Thus, consistent and informative educational programs on imported food safety could help consumers in choosing safer products, resulting in an improvement in the consumer confidence with respect to imported foods.

The purpose of this paper was to grasp some aspects of use of imported foods at the rural homes with the growing generation. So we put some questions to the 399 middle school and high school students. The results were as follows: (1) The number of the homes using the imported foods, which marks 56.9% of the whole, was higher than the number of the homes not using the ones. (2) Even though the use of imported foods had no relation with the occupations of the student's mothers, the degree of living quality, the situations of food consumption, and so on, however the use ratio was high at the homes of middle class. (3) The students of the home of using imported foods favored the traditional diets, and marked 63% of the objective students of investigation. The students who like the western style of diets marked the high frequency of the use of the imported foods. On the other hand, the students who like the Chinese foods used the meat and fishes and processed foodstuffs among the imported foods. (4) The frequency of instant foods for the carried lunches showed the meaningful relation with frequency of use of imported foods. (5) In the view of use of instant foods for the lunches, the group of people who carried the lunches 3 or 5 times per week used the imported meat foods, the other group who carried the lunches 1 or 2 times per week marked the high frequency of having coffee and tea.