Attitudes and preferences of consumers toward food allergy labeling practices by diagnosis of food allergies

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate food allergens and prevalence rates of food allergies, followed by comparison of consumer attitudes and preferences regarding food allergy labeling by diagnosis of food allergies. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A total of 543 individuals living in Seoul and Gyeonggi area participated in the survey from October 15 to 22 in 2013. RESULTS: The results show that the prevalence of doctor-diagnosed food allergies was 17.5%, whereas 6.4% of respondents self-reported food allergies. The most common allergens of doctor-diagnosed and self-reported food allergy respondents were peaches (30.3%) and eggs (33.3%), respectively, followed by peanuts, cow's milk, and crab. Regarding consumer attitudes toward food labeling, checking food allergens as an item was only significantly different between allergic and non-allergic respondents among all five items (P < 0.001). All respondents reported that all six items (bold font, font color, box frame, warning statement, front label, and addition of potential allergens) were necessary for an improved food allergen labeling system. PLSR analysis determined that the doctor-diagnosed group and checking of food allergens were positively correlated, whereas the non-allergy group was more concerned with checking product brands. CONCLUSIONS: An effective food labeling system is very important for health protection of allergic consumers. Additionally, government agencies must develop policies regarding prevalence of food allergies in Korea. Based on this information, the food industry and government agencies should provide clear and accurate food labeling practices for consumers.

The Survey of Perception on Obstacles in Implementing Generic HACCP Plan for School Foodservice Operations

The purpose of this study was to identify obstacles by surveying dieticians' perception in implementing Generic HACCP Plan for school foodservice operations from 2001. The survey was conducted in five areas; Seoul, Kyoung-gi Province, In-cheon, Kwang-ju and Dae-jeon. Five hundred and sixty questionnaire were sent by the e-mail address and the local school dietician's Community Board on the internet, 263 were returned. Two hundred and forty were returned by E-mail, return rate was 42.86%. Twenty three were received by the local school dietician's Community Board on the internet. The obstacles were grouped of six fields and indicated thirteen factors in implementation of the Generic HACCP Plan for school foodservice. The six fields were 'status of cooperation within HACCP team', 'cooperation with the external people' such as teachers, food suppliers, student's parents, 'understanding HACCP system of the dieticians', 'hygiene facilities', 'training & educating employees', and 'difficulty of monitoring'. To assess the factor as a obstacle we used Likert's scale; 5-agree strongly, 4-agree, 3-medial, 2-don't agree, 1-don't agree strongly. Results of this study are as follows; 1) The scores of thirteen factors indicated as obstacles were over 3(medial) except 'lack of dietician's understanding about HACCP System(2.86+/-0.97)'. Also only about 63% dieticians recognized that as an obstacle factor. 2) 'Deficiency of hygiene facilities(4.41+/-0.76), 'lack of teachers' cooperation(4.23+/-0.77)', 'inadequacy of the kitchen lay-out(4.19+/-0.95)' and 'lack of training and educating program for employees(3.97+/-0.85)' scored most highly. Results from this study show that financial resources and educating system are very important to settle down HACCP system for School Foodservices successfully.