한국인의 식품소비 심층분석

Abstract

소비침체 현상의 지속, 고령화와 1인 가구의 빠른 확대, 기후 변화, 시장개방의 영향 등으로 소비자의 식품소비행태가 빠르게 변화하고 있으나 식품공급은 이러한 변화에 적극적으로 대응하지 못하고 있다. 식품시장에서 소비자의 선호에 대응하여 생산·유통·판매 형태가 변화하고 있지만, 소비자 지향적인 경쟁력을 갖추지 못하여 다양한 고품질 식품 수입이 빠르게 증가하는 상황이다. 외식을 통한 동물성 식품 섭취 증가, 아침 결식 확대, 과도한 다이어트 등 잘못된 식습관 증가로 영양 불균형이 확대되고 비만인구 및 순환기계 질환 등 식생활 관련 질병이 증가하고 있다.

식품정책의 방향 제시와 농업의 대응방안 마련을 위해서는 식품소비에 대한 장기 전망과 계층별·수요처별 소비구조 분석 등을 통해 식품소비시장에 대한 면밀한 분석이 지속적으로 추진될 필요가 있다. 식품소비 전반을 대상으로 관련 이슈를 정리하고 다양한 분석방법과 데이터를 이용하여 심층 분석함으로써 미래 소비를 전망하고 생산 및 정책 수립에 구체적인 시사점을 발굴할 필요가 있다.

이 연구는 경제·인구·사회 환경 등의 변화가 식품구입, 식생활, 영양섭취, 식품소비 환경, 식품소비정책 평가 등 광의의 식품소비에 미치는 영향을 살펴보고 주요 식품소비 이슈에 대해 심층 분석하는 데 목적이 있다.

Background of Research ○The food consumption behavior and dietary life of consumers are changing rapidly in Korea due to the changes in economic, social and demographic circumstances and the effects of the advanced science and technology, climate change, and the opening of agricultural markets. However, it is assessed that the food supply system has not appropriately responded to such changes. ○Furthermore, the imbalance in nutrition has been spreading and there has been a rise in diet-related diseases such as obesity and circulatory system diseases, given the prevalence of improper dietary habits such as increased consumption of animal-based foods resulting from eating-out more frequently, expansion of skipping breakfast, and excessive dieting. These issues point to the seriousness of the problems related to food consumption behavior and dietary life. ○In order to present a proper direction for food policies and to provide response plans for the agricultural industry, it is necessary to pursue a periodic in-depth analysis of the food consumption market using various methodologies including the long-term outlooks on food consumption and the analysis of food consumption structure both by class of consumers and by channel of purchasing food. ○The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of changes in the economic, demographic and social environment on, in a broad sense, the food consumption in Korea including the areas of food purchase, dietary life, nutrition intake, food consumption environment, and the policies for food consumption. Various analysis methods and data were utilized to predict future consumption and to find implications for production and policy establishment. Method of Research ○This study conducted massive analysis per food type and consumer type that are difficult to apply in time-series data. Analysis was carried out on raw data of various statistics related to food consumption. The study was carried out in the form of researchers and academic experts jointly conducting research on major issues in the relevant fields. ○In particular, trends were analyzed using social media and big data, and based on the National Geographic Information Institute's 100mx100m grip-type population chart per gender and age and the business DB of the Small Enterprise and Market Service, GIS analysis was conducted and a food environment map was drafted. Also, surveys were carried out on 1,100 consumers to measure consumer perception/assessment on food consumption behaviors and policies according to the food purchasing environment. ○Meanwhile, expert adviser meetings were held in order to calculate the consumer capacity index and to come up with questions, and relevant questions from the 'food consumption behavior surveys' periodically conducted by the Korea Rural Economic Institute were included for analysis.

Food Consumption Changes and Structural Changes ○The food consumption increase rate is measured at about half the increase rate of consumer expenditures. However, changes in consumption through eating-out increased greatly compared to changes in consumer expenditures, although the growth began to stagnate from the 2000s. By food type, eating-out (regular restaurants), eating-out (group meals), eating-out (pubs/coffee shops), bread and rice-cakes had relatively high expenditures, and expenditures of these categories also increased at a high speed. On the other hand, while expenditure was still high, the consumption of meats, sugar and snacks, grains, fruits, and processed fruits stagnated. ○Level 1 income type households reduced overall food consumption, while households higher than level 3 displayed increase in overall food consumption. In the case of eating-out, there was high growth for households with the head of the family in their 20s. There was also a continued gap in expenditure on meats depending on the income level, and instant/frozen foods and alcohol are greatly expanding in terms of expenditure gaps according to age/income level. ○Upon conducting time-series analysis, food consumption in Korea was judged to have two endogenous structural changes in 1990 and circa 2000. Aspects such as economic, 0 and social factors had a greater impact on food consumption than factors related to changes in consumer preference. The impact of the income factor decreased after the 1990s and has been dropping continuously since, while the effect of the demographic factor has been expanding. ○Upon estimating income elasticity, it was found that a 1% increase in income led to the highest income elasticity in expenditures on eating-out at a rise of 0.9%. In particular, it was analyzed that at the age of over 60, consumers displayed a preference for luxury goods. The income elasticity for processed foods was 0.5%, and for fresh foods, it was 0.3%. ○Based on the age of consumers, expenditures on food consumption showed an inverse-U type curve that began to drop after peaking at the ages between 55 and 64, and cohort analysis results showed that generation effect and year effect were small, and the age factor had the greatest effect.

Features of the Food Consumption Trends ○As of 1990, food consumption trends changed from a stage of satisfactory supply to the stage of pursuing quality, and around 2000, it moved from the quality pursuit stage to the diversification stage. Food consumption in Korea after the 2000s entered the diversification stage that placed the highest priority on food safety followed by an equal level of simplicity, pursuit of rationality, diversification/higher quality. ○Upon analyzing social media and big data, health/safety trends had the biggest weight, which was followed by the rapidly increasing trends of simplification, diversification/higher quality. Upon assessments of consumers for emotional trends, it was found that higher quality/diversification had the most positive assessments. Interestingly, when it came to ethical consumption, responses pointed to close-to-neutral negative tendencies, making it difficult to deem that consumers evaluate it positively yet. ○Upon analyzing the lifestyles of consumer groups, it was found that higher income and younger age groups vigorously pursued simplicity, while higher income and older age groups also pursued health, and lower income and older age groups tended to pursue rational spending.

Nutrition Consumption and Dietary Changes ○Daily energy consumption per person is increasing slightly, but fat consumption is increasing rapidly. There has been a rise in the percentage of people consuming less than standard portions of various nutrients, showing trends of increasing nutritional imbalance. In terms of percentage of imbalances in nutrition, adolescents posted the highest imbalance ratios at 15.2%, followed by those in their 20s (12.8%), and those over the age of 65 (8.4%). ○Consumers in their 20s and 30s obtained over half of their nutrition from eating out. Meats accounted for 62.3% of consumption when eating out (including group meals). The rate of skipping breakfast was higher than in the US and Japan, and it was highest among those in their 20s at around 40%. ○Upon analyzing the impact of dietary habits on health, it was analyzed that consumption of regular meals and breakfast significantly lowered obesity metabolic syndrome. In terms of health impact per food type, rice, dairy products and vegetables were the categories that lowered obesity and metabolic syndrome the most effectively.

Analysis of Food Stability (Guarantee) and Food Environment ○Households in the unstable (un-guaranteed food security) food stage accounted for 10% of all households, and there was increased instability (un-guaranteed food security) among households with low income levels and those over the age of 60. Compared to households with two people or more, single-person households showed almost twice as much food instability (un-guaranteed food security). ○In order to identify accessibility to food from a national level, a food environment map was constructed using GIS. Based on the distance of place of residence and food sellers to analyze the food environment, the percentage of population in a poor food environment (those placed far from food sellers) did not exceed 10% in metropolitan cities. However, it was found that over 60% of the entire population in 20 small cities, Gun and Gu lived in vulnerable areas. ○Food consumption environments had a major impact on inconvenience in accessing food, and finally, it had significant impact on instability (un-guarantee) of food consumption. It was also verified that there were differences in food purchase habits, dietary habits and satisfaction with the existing food policies.

Evaluation of Pursuing Food Consumption Policies ○Consumer surveys on food consumption policies showed that awareness on policies was generally low. In particular, it was found that consumer awareness level on policies related to consumers on damage relief, dietary education, dietary support and provision of information were especially low. ○Upon reorganizing and measuring the consumer capacity index in the food sector, the food consumer capacity index in 2016 was found to be 64 (out of 100), and by age, those in their 40s and 50s showed the highest capacity, while women had higher capacities than men. Of the three capacities namely purchasing, dietary habits, and civic capacities, food purchasing capacity was relatively low. As for the dietary habit capacity index, there was high interest and practicing levels for consumers, but it did not nearly meet the level of accurate awareness.

Food Consumption Outlooks and Implications ○It is expected that food consumption trends will drop by an annual average of 2.0% up until 2025. Also, home consumption tendencies have continuously dropped at an annual average of 2.6%, while consumption by eating-out maintained a constant level up until the 2000s, although it is expected that it will begin to decrease slightly at an annual average of 1.0%. It is also expected that consumer expenditures on food will continue to increase slightly at about 0.2% on annual average. ○In order for the food industry to gain competitiveness, it is necessary to positively respond to changes in consumer preferences and habits and come up with customized strategies by breaking down consumer categories. Furthermore, in order to enhance consumer trust, it is essential to establish safe and fair trading and also provide reasonable relief procedures in the event that damages regarding food occur. ○Since dietary habits directly affect the health of consumers, it is necessary to strengthen support and education on eating right, while ensuring availability of healthy foods for the nation. Furthermore, it was analyzed that there is an increase in the ratio of vulnerable diet classes and that food stability (guarantee) is affected by not only the economic conditions of households, but also by inconveniences in purchase/consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to regularly update the food environment map to continuously monitor environmental changes. Furthermore, food support policies and methods are to be diversified taking into consideration conditions of the regional food environment conditions to effectively address dietary habits when pursuing food support policies.

Researchers: Lee Kyeim, Kim Sanghyo, Heo Seongyoon Research Period: 2016. 1. ~ 2016. 10. E-mail address: lkilki@krei.re.kr