This study aimed at elementary, middle, and high school dietitians who purchase ingredients for school meals. Therefore, for the study, the awareness and usage of nutritional information by 108 teachers and dieticians on 5 hazard-free meals using multivariate analysis of variance were investigated during May 18~21, 2021. Among the five questions that asked the general perceptions of school meal dietitians of 5 hazard-free meals, the perception that the “5 hazard-free foods can be easily distinguished” was the lowest. Problems were associated with using the 5 hazard-free meals such as “expensive price,” “no variety in items,” “disruption in the supply and demand,” “inconsistent quality,” and “lack of taste,” in that order. Therefore, to improve 5 hazard-free school meal service, it is necessary to not only lower the price burden by providing subsidies to schools but also improve the development and distribution structure of various 5 hazard-free foods.

The aim of this study was to investigate school dieticians’ awareness of the necessity for nutritional education and job satisfaction via qualitative research. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were carried out with 10 school dieticians. Results revealed that all participants said that schools urgently need nutritional education, and dietary attitude and unbalanced eating habits were the most urgent matters to be addressed. They made various suggestions related to revitalization of nutritional education: turning dieticians into nutritional educators, improving awareness of teachers and parents, receiving training on appropriate teaching methods, and so on. In response to their tasks, they considered bargaining with vendors and examination foods as the most burdensome tasks. In response to questions about how participants were treated in their workplaces, all participants reported low job satisfaction due to excessive work, lack of promotion opportunities, and low salary. To improve this, participants recommended creating a task manual, strengthening their role as managers, increasing their salary, and so on. Therefore, institutional support is necessary for dieticians to efficiently handle their excessive workload. In addition, an educational environment where dieticians can effectively carry out nutritional education needs to be created.

In the present study, we conducted in-depth interviews with school dieticians and nutrition teachers to determine the local foods they were aware of and their experiences with local foods. We also aimed to obtain more detailed measures for local food vitalization and suggestions for improvements. In-depth interviews were performed with 8 school dieticians and nutrition teachers, who stated that local food vitalization was needed for school food services, because it could be a foundation for securing safefood products, student healthi mprovements, environmental protection, and the establishment of a general consumption market. However, they were aware of a higher number of disadvantages than advantages in school situations and indicated the deterioration of the quality of food products as the biggest disadvantage. The most-suggested measurement items for local food vitalization in schools included improvement of the food distribution system, expansion of education, information sharing, prevention of monopolies, improvement of food-product quality, and mass production. In addition, it was suggested that school dieticians and nutrition teachers should invest efforts in the development of excellent recipes and varied diets utilizing local foods. Therefore, system supplementation is urgently required in order for school food service officials, and consumers, to efficiently introduce and vitalize local foods. It is also necessary to foster an environment that encourages trust-based relationships with producers to maximize the effect of system supplementation. This would be the foundation for improving the health of students, improving food-service quality, nutrition management, and vitalization of the regional economy in the future, and will positively affect students’ food consumption patterns even after they become adults.

This study was planned to investigate the current using status of agricultural products in school food service both produced in Korea and imported from other countries and the dieticians' perception on using those. A total of 723 dieticians of 442 elementary schools and 381 middle high schools were surveyed in July, 2003 to perform the purposes of the study. A high using rate (93.4%) for Korean agricultural products was investigated. As for meat such as pork and chicken except beef and eggs, the using rate of Korean agricultural products was high. Almost 100% of vegetables and fruits, except tropical fruits such as banana, kiwi, orange and pineapple supplied for school food service were also Korean products. As for nuts and edible oil, the rate of using for Korean agricultural products was comparatively lower than those of other food items due to the price gap. Most dieticians rated the quality of the products produced in Korea higher than that of the imported products in the aspects of their freshness, taste, and safety. But they found no difference in the package condition of the products produced in Korea and of those imported from other countries. This result suggests that the package system should be improved for the agricultural products produced in Korea.