We investigated the intake trends of street foods for middle school, high school and colleges students through the survey study. In addition, the factors affecting the students' consumption of street foods and their perception toward hygiene status of street vendor were studied. The levels of total aerobic bacteria, coliform groups and enterobacteriaceae in Kimbab, eomuk, and eomuk-kukmul were counted using 3M petrifilms. More than ninety seven % of the respondents had experienced street foods. All the respondents ate street foods 1 to 5 times a month. Forty percent of the respondent stated that 'good taste' and 'time-saving convenience' were their reason for eating the street foods. Their favorite foods were ddokbokgi and various fried foods. All the students responded that frying oil, drinking water, and soy sauce as well as the street vendors' attire and their cooking tools in street vendor were unsanitary. Forty percent of the respondents ranked frying oil as the most unsanitary substance. Eighty percent of the respondents responded that an enforcement of hygiene should be imposed on the street foods vendor. There were significant differences (p〈0.001) among the student's age in the opinion related to the reasons of eating street foods, hygiene enforcement, existence of street foods and interest of hygiene status of street foods. High correlation (p〈0.05) between the frequency of street foods and snack intakes was shown, regardless of student's age. The result shows that those who eat snacks more than once a day tend to eat street foods more frequently. Aerobic plate counts in Kimbab in 5 different vendors exceeded 105/g and contamination levels of enterobacteriaceae or coliform in Kimbab exceeded more than 103/g, which did not satisfy the microbiological standards. In conclusion, although the respondents thought that the sanitation of street foods was poor, most of them want the street food vendor to be maintained with better hygiene condition. This indicated that the regulation for safe street foods should be enforced and educational information about the preparation and serving for safe street foods should be provided to street food vendor.

This study was designed to identify the actual state of ready-to-eat street-foods usage in a college-town in northern part of seoul. For the empirical study, data was collected from customers who had eaten street-foods and a survey was conducted from 16 to 30, May 2006. The results showed that many respondents had irregular eating habits. More than 60% of them responded they usually skipped breakfast and the reason was no time. It was shown that they have had Frequent snacks and unbalanced diet. The results of survey are as follows ; 1. The major time for street-foods usage: p.m 3-5 (28.77%). 2. The frequency of street-foods usage: 1-2 times/week (43.85%). 3. The street-foods usage days of the week: weekday (52.79%). 4. The mean cost for the onetime purchase of street-foods usage: 1000-3000won (71.79%). 5. The monthly cost for the purchase of street-foods usage: below 50000won (81.84%). 6. The reason for street-foods usage: mainly convenience (60.61%). 7. The reason for minding street-foods : mainly insanitary (40.50)%. 8. Factors considered when choosing street-foods: tastes of the foods (65.08%). Also, it was shown that over 50% of respondents have considered the street-foods as the worth of meal replacement, and taken effective factor on eating habits for influx of new culture. It was indicated that problems of street-foods usage was the unbalanced nutrition for 81.8% of respondents and suggestions for improving the street-foods were sanitary controls for products for 63.4% of respondents.