2013 식품소비행태조사 기초분석보고서

Abstract

소득 수준 향상, 인구고령화, 여성의 사회진출 확대 등의 경제·사회·인구여건 변화와 과학기술의 발달 및 시장 개방의 영향 등으로 소비자의 식품소비행태가 빠르게 변화하고 있다. 정부 식품정책의 목표도 양적인 공급에서 고품질·안전 식품에 대한 안정적 공급으로 전환되고, 적정 영양 섭취를 통한 건강 식생활 보장까지 확대되고 있다.

기존의 식품소비 관련 정부승인통계는 지출액조사로 한정되어 있으며, 조사 내용도 한정적이어서 최근 빠르게 변화하는 소비자의 식품소비 트렌드를 파악하는 데 어려움이 있었다. 사회적 여건 변화에 대응하여 식품소비행태를 구체적으로 파악하고, 식품산업 발전과 식품의 원활한 수급 및 식품자원의 효율적 이용을 위해서는 대표성 있는 식품소비조사 표본을 구축하여 주기적으로 식품소비행태에 대한 조사·분석이 필요한 시점이다.

한국농촌경제연구원에서는 객관적이고 신뢰할만한 식품소비행태 통계를 구축하기 위해 2013년 3월에 통계청으로부터 통계작성지정기관 승인을 받았으며, 4월에는 ‘식품소비행태조사’가 조사통계로 정부승인을 받게 되었다. 조사 대상은 1인 가구와 제주도 지역을 포함함으로써 전국적인 대표성을 확보하고자 하였다. 또한 조사표는 가구 내 식품소비행태뿐만 아니라 외식행태를 포함하며, 식품의 표시·안전성 등 식생활 전반에 관한 인식까지 대상으로 하고 있다.

Background of Research As a response to the changing food consumption behaviors, it is necessary to conduct multi-faceted surveys on a continued basis to identify the food consumption trends. However, the government approved statistics regarding food consumption has focused only on the survey on food spending, while the surveys on other areas remained very insufficient. So far there hasn’t been a survey performed to show the overall aspects of food consumption behaviors. To understand the food consumption behavior in details and leverage such understanding as useful tools for food production and related policy development, the representative sampling for food consumption survey needs to be pursued, and with the samples surveys should be conducted on a regular basis for research and analysis on food consumption behaviors.

Method of Research For the food consumption behavior survey, the Enumeration Districts(ED) and the list of households used by Statistics Korea’s 2010 Census were taken as sample extraction tools, and the samples were finalized based on the stratified sampling method. The areas included in the survey are the consumers’ perception on their food consumption patterns(with regards to food choices, nutritions, health, etc.); the food purchase and consumption behaviors; food consumer characteristics; eat-out pattern; consumers’ self-evaluation on their food consumption patterns; current status of food consumption eduction and promotion; and key policy issues. In this study, a two-step survey was designed. First, the household-level survey was designed to ask questions to the main food purchaser of a household regarding food consumption status within family and the characteristics of the household. Secondly, the household member-level survey was designed to ask questions to any household members who are middle school students or older with regards to their food consumption status outside of home and individual perceptions on food consumption. When the respondents are adolescents, a different set of questionnaire was used considering their limited experience in terms of food consumption compared with adults.

Research Results and Implications The survey has found that 38.9% of the households surveyed buy foods twice to three times per week and 36.7% of them buy foods once a week, which indicates that the majority of the households surveyed or 75.6% purchase foods once to three times per week. For the question on the frequent place to visit for grocery shopping, 29.8% said they buy foods at medium or small-sized community grocery stores or supermarkets, followed by 27.8% who buy foods at large-scaled discount stores and 27.2% who visit traditional open markets. No significant distinction is found when it comes to the places of grocery shopping among the respondents. 15.8% of the households surveyed buy their foods on the Internet and they gave 71.4 points and 70.4 points as a score for price level and their satisfaction with quality respectively, and the scores given by online grocery shoppers are higher than the environmentally friendly food buyers who account for 37.6% of the respondents and gave 59.4 points for price level and 69.4 points for their satisfaction with quality. Almost a half of the households surveyed(48.6%) are found to consume functional foods, and in particular specific food supplements such as vitamin(67.8%) and red ginseng/ginseng(46.3%) were consumed at the high percentages. For the frequency of rice purchase, the households who purchase rice every two to three months account for 44.5%. Housewives consider price first upon purchase of rice(26.0%), followed by the location of production(17.8%), the country of origin(15.1%) and the types of rice(12.8%). For the frequency of vegetable purchase, 35.7% of the households surveyed replied twice to three times per week and they tend to buy in bulk compared to the small-package purchase(57.5%). For the frequency of fruit purchase, 41.4% said once a week. Adult household members are found to prefer watermelons and apples, while the household members aged 20 or below relatively like tangerines, strawberries, oranges and bananas more. The key consumer considerations for vegetable and fruit purchase include freshness and price. When it comes to fruits, the level of sugar contents is also considered by 14.5% of those surveyed. The key consumer considerations for meat purchase are freshness(25.8%) and price(23.6%). Almost a half of the households surveyed(48.1%) showed no intention to purchase imported beef from the United Stats, but a high percentage of the respondents(42.7%) expressed “intention to eat” for imported beef from Australia. 62.2% of the households surveyed answered “no intention to eat” imported pork. It is found that Kimchi is mostly made by households on their own(51.5%), but still many households are getting Kimchi for their own consumption from ‘family members/relatives.’ Housewives surveyed gave 68.8 points for their satisfaction level with the current food consumption patterns. At the individual level, adolescents’ satisfaction score for their food consumption pattern was 70.4 points, which is higher than the adults’ satisfaction score of 69.2 points. Adults are interested in whether food materials are domestically produced(71 points), and the interest in locally produced(64 points) and environmentally friendly(63 points) food materials are at the similar levels. By contrast, adolescents showed relatively lower level of interest in the characteristics of food materials such as domestic production, local production or green production. Those who said the family eat-out twice to three times per month account for 36.7% and food taste was regarded as the most considered factor to choose restaurants. The popular eat-out places for families are either barbecue restaurants or Korean restaurants. If a householder is 30 years old or younger or the household is a high-income family, family restaurants are more likely chosen. The single-member households tend to choose a snack bar for dining-out. About 56% of the households surveyed use food delivery or take-out services for family dining. When the number of household members is higher and the monthly average household income is at the KRW 4 million level, families tend to use more of food delivery or take-out services. The primary choices of delivery/take-out foods are chicken dishes including fried chicken. Those who don’t use food delivery/take-out services cited high prices(20.5%), hygiene(18.2%), and over-use of chemical seasoning(16.6%) as the reasons for avoiding food delivery/take-out services. The questions on food-related consumer policy show that both adults(66.5%) and adolescents(59.1%) chose ‘ensuring food safety’ as the most important policy. Around three out of ten people surveyed have the perception that the Korean foods are safe in general, and 50.7% of the adult respondents expressed their intention to pay higher prices for safer foods. On the scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is the highest score for perceived safety, adult respondents gave 3.5 points for the perceived safety on domestic foods, while adolescents gave 3.6 for the same category, both of which are relatively high scores. Imported foods were given 2.5 points for the perceived safety of individual food items, on the scale of 1 to 5, showing the lower scores than their domestic counterparts. For the question on who should play the most important role in food safety control, the food producers top the list followed by the central government, food distributors and food retailers. Concerning the food labeling, consumers are found to check prices and the countries of origin most upon purchase of vegetables and meat but they check the expiry date and prices as the priority consideration upon purchase of processed foods. When the awareness of food labeling programs was questioned, it is found that the country of origin labeling system(88.9%) and the organic farming authentication system(79.8%) are the most well known. 38.9 % of the respondents chose lower grades of elementary school as the best timing for basic food education, followed by higher grades of elementary schools(20.0%), early childhood(15.9%) and middle school students(15.6%) respectively. The survey on food consumption behavior is expected to provide the basis for the government when it establishes food policies and for companies when they conduct market analysis. In order to improve the credibility and usability of the survey outcomes, feedbacks will be collected from the users of statistics and the survey system will be improved accordingly. In addition, close follow-up management and disclosure of survey statistics will be conducted down the road.

Researcher(s): Kyei-Im Lee, Yun-Jae Hwang, Dong-Weon Kim, Hyun-Jung Ban, In-Ho Park Research Period: 2013. 1. ∼ 2013. 12. E-mail address: lkilki@krei.re.kr