This study examined the sweet taste perception, perception of sugar reduction, and utilization of nutrition labeling according to the awareness of the self-perceived sugar intake reduction of university students in Chungbuk Area. The subjects (n=419) were divided into two groups: Awareness of Sugar Intake Reduction (ASIR) group, male=110, female=109; Non Awareness of Sugar Intake Reduction (NASIR) group, male=115, female=85. The overweight/obesity was significantly higher in the ASIR group than in the NASIR group for both male and female students. The sweet taste perception was significantly lower in the ASIR group in male students than in the NASIR group. The purchase level of a product with reduced sugar instead of the original products was significantly higher in the ASIR group in male students than the NASIR group. Beverage purchases after identifying the sugar content were significantly higher in the ASIR group in male students than in the NASIR group. The necessity of nutrition labeling education was significantly higher in the ASIR group both male and female students. Based on these results, the correct perception of sugar reduction and continuous and practical nutrition education of sugar intake reduction need to maintain healthy dietary habits in university students.

본 연구에서는 음료의 탁도와 맛의 교차-양상에 근거한 연상관계를 탐색하였다. 시각 자극물로 무채색의 막걸리와 탄산음료를 선정하였으며, 자극물은 각각 0.0625~32 g/L, 0.0078~4 g/L 범위 내에서 인지적 등간격을 이룰 수 있도록 열 단계로 나누어 제작하였다. 시각적 관능 평가 실험에서는 ‘단맛’, ‘짠맛’, ‘쓴맛’, ‘신맛’, ‘마시고 싶은’ 기본 미각 형용사와 더불어, 막걸리와 관련된 ‘누룩향이 나는’, ‘술맛이 나는’, ‘산뜻한’ 특징 미각 형용사와 탄산음료와 관련된 ‘부드러운’, ‘톡 쏘는’, ‘인공적인’ 특징 미각 형용사를 선별하여 리커트 3점 척도로 평가하였다(N=35). 실험 결과 기본 미각에 대한 판단에 있어 막걸리는 탁도가 증가함에 따라 기본 맛이 더욱 강하게 느껴지는 반면, 탄산음료의 경우 ‘신맛’에서만 양의 상관관계가 관찰되었다. 특히 막걸리의 ‘마시고 싶은’ 척도는 4.6~20 g/L 범위에서 가장 높이 관찰됐는데, 이는 시판되는 막걸리 탁도 범위와 일치하여 기억 탁도의 영향을 확인할 수 있었다. 음료 별 미각 형용사에 대해서는 ‘산뜻한’ 맛과 ‘인공적인’ 맛을 제외하고 두 음료 모두 탁도와 강한 양의 상관관계를 보였다. 본 연구의 결과를 바탕으로 음료의 미각적 경험을 공유할 때 탁도를 활용한다면, 각 음료가 추구하는 맛을 보다 효율적으로 소비자에게 전달할 수 있을 것으로 예상된다.

Increasing sugar intake of population has become a nutritional issue in Korea. Sweet taste perception may be related to behaviors such as eating sweet food including high sugars and total sugar intake. This study aimed to evaluate objective and subjective sweet taste perception and the association among objective sweet taste perception, dietary behaviors related to eating sweet snack food including high sugar, and total sugar intake from the snacks. Participants were 261 healthy female college students (mean age: 21.0±1.6 years), who were divided into three subgroups based on oral sweet taste evaluation using a sweet taste assessment tool provided by Ministry of Food and Drug Safety: sweet-seeker group (n=139), medium sweet-seeker group (n=54), and unsweet-seeker group (n=68). There was no significant difference in weight and body mass index (BMI) among the three groups; however, the sweet-seeker group had significantly higher sweet taste preference than that of the other groups. Though more people in the sweet-seeker group thought they tended to eat sweet foods than the medium sweet-seeker and unsweet-seeker groups, over half of the sweet-seekers did not think they tended to eat sweet foods. The sweet-seeker group was more likely to eat sweet snacks such as breads, chocolate products, sugar-sweetened milk, and so on than the unsweet-seeker group. Total sugar intake from the selected sweet snacks was 44.4 g for the sweet-seeker group, 34.4 g for the medium sweet-seeker group, and 28.0 g for the unsweet-seeker group with a significant difference. These results indicated the absence of relationship between objective sweet taste perception and the obesity index; however, significant associations were detected among objective sweet taste perception, eating sweet snacks and total sugar intake from the snacks. We also found high disagreement between objective and subjective sweet taste perception of the subjects. The present study provided the novel insight that measuring objective sweet taste perception may be useful for assessing the risk of high sugar consumption and undesirable dietary behaviors.

This study was conducted as a comparative analysis, using the SPSS 17.0 program for a survey conducted from March to July 2013, on the level of perception and preference factors of Koreans and Americans residing in Virginia, USA(89 male and female adults of 20 years of age or above). For the information on the degree of obesity, a survey was used and the subjects provided with their heights and weights. The researcher used this data to calculated their BMI and distinguished the degrees of obesity. For the BMI, the obesity diagnosis of Korean Society for the Study of Obesity was used for Koreans, and the WHO's obesity diagnosis on adults were employed for Americans. First, regarding the Korean participants, the level of obesity appeared in the order of normal (79.6%), overweight (14.3%), and underweight (6.1%). Also, the level of perceptions of their health conditions appeared in the order of average (51.7%) and good (34.7%). No one perceived their health to be in poor condition. Meanwhile, for the American participants, the order was as follows: overweight at about 45%, normal weight at about 35%, obesity at about 12.5%, and underweight at about 7.5%. In terms of the level of perception of health during ordinary times, about 55% of the American participants answered that they are in good health. Therefore, the Americans were found to perceive their health to be in relatively better condition than the Koreans residing in the USA. Also, concerning the level of interest in health while eating food at ordinary times, the American participants were discovered to be more interested (about 62.5%) than the Korean participants. The research on their preference for salty taste was conducted as a survey, and the subjects were asked to choose an item according to their subjective feeling. Regarding the preference for salty taste, both Koreans and Americans residing in the USA responded as moderate. However, a higher proportion of Americans than Koreans responded to favor salty taste. Concerning the reason for their preference for salty taste, Koreans responded with various reasons whereas Americans mostly responded that it is because they eat salty food frequently. For any changes in dietary behavior related to eating salty food, both Korean and American respondents thought that the amount of their daily intake of salt is appropriate and that they consider taste as most important in selecting a snack. Based on the above data, the results of this research indicate a need for actual improvement in the diet with regard to salty food along with diverse policies for promoting life with a low salt diet in future.

The effect of color, as measured on the spectrometer, on the 4 basic tastes(sweet, salty, sour & bitter) perception of a series of colored and no-flavored solutions was quantified by 16 taste panel using magnitude estimation without modulus. The regression lines for each colored series were found to differ indicating that color had a significant effect on sweetness, sourness and bitterness. A sucrose level of 4.0%, a citric acid level of 0.05%, and a nicotinamide level of 0.08% maximized the effect of color on taste's perception and its acceptability. Although color tended to confuse the perception of saltiness, this effect was not significant except for yellow solutions.