고령친화식품시장 현황 및 활성화 방안

Abstract

출산율의 급격한 감소와 지속적인 기대수명의 증가, 그리고 높은 비중을 차지하는 베이비붐 세대의 고령층 편입은 우리나라를 빠르게 고령화시키고 있다. 그동안 우리 정부는 저출산·고령화 대책 수립, 장기요양보험제도 도입 등 급속한 고령화에 대응하기 위해 많은 노력을 기울여 왔으나, 고령자의 먹거리와 관련해서는 대응책을 마련하지 못한 것이 현실이다.산업계는 고령화를 시장의 기회로 삼기 위해 실버산업, 고령친화산업 등의 이름으로 고령 소비자 중심의 새로운 시장을 열어 가고 있으나, 고령친화식품은 그 개념조차 정립되어 있지 못하여 시장 활성화가 요원한 실정이다. 동시에 고령 소비자들의 섭취기능 저하는 영양·건강상태 악화 및 삶의 질 저하 등의 문제로 이어지고 있으며, 이를 예방·해결하는 데 고령친화식품이 중요한 역할을 할 것으로 기대되어 고령친화식품시장 활성화의 필요성이 점차 강조되고 있는 상황이다.본 연구는 급속한 인구 고령화에 효과적으로 대응하기 위해 고령자의 영양·건강상태, 식품소비·섭취행태, 식품에 대한 기호 및 니즈를 파악하고, 식품업계와 고령자 급식시설의 공급 실태 및 애로사항을 진단하여, 고령친화식품시장이 활성화되지 못한 요인을 규명하고, 고령친화식품시장을 활성화시키기 위한 방안을 제시할 목적으로 수행되었다.

Background of Study○ As the birth rate declines and life expectancy increases, the elderly population in Korea is rapidly growing. Another worrying aspect is the pace of this change. When the baby boomers reach old age between 2015 and 2030, Korea is expected to enter the hyperaging society unprecedented in the world.○ Since elderly people generally have a decreased appetite and a low food intake ability, there is a high risk of nutritional imbalance and the actual nutrition intake of elderly people is significantly smaller than the recommended amount.○ The senior-friendly food market in Korea is not very active due to various factors, and there is no clear definition or classification of senior-friendly foods.○ This study aims to examine the status of food consumption and preferences of elderly people in order to reduce the social cost to treat chronic diseases due to aging, improve the quality of life of elderly people, enhance health and develop senior-friendly foods as a growth engine of the future food industry, examine the actual conditions and difficulties of suppliers, and suggest factors that may impede the market. This study also aims to suggest the basic direction of policy and details for vitalizing the senior-friendly food market.Research Method○ We analyzed trends of the elderly population in Korea to determine their patterns of food consumption, consumption power, income / assets, and status of socioeconomic changes through study of related literature and data, performed statistical analysis of original data, and further evaluated subdivided data for each age group.○ A survey by questionnaire was conducted to gather information from food companies, elderly consumers, and nutritionists working for rest homes to understand the status of the senior-friendly food market. We analyzed specific factors that inhibit vitalization thereof, the preferences of elderly people and future policy demand to draw implications with reference to cases from Japan and Germany.○ The cohort analysis was used to examine the effect in years, effect in age groups, and effect in generations for food consumption expenditure. The Treatment Effect Model and WTP analysis of elderly consumers was used to analyze the effect of vitalizing the senior-friendly food market. A SWOT analysis was used to examine various conditions surrounding the senior-friendly food market.Trends in Aging and Socio-economic Change○ Korea is rapidly becoming a very old society as the birth rate of Korea is very low and life expectancy increases. The working-age population is declining, the cost for supporting elderly people is rising, and medical expenditures are surging.○ The three major eating difficulties of elderly people, for example, chewing / swallowing / digestion difficulties are serious, and a correlation analysis shows the chewing difficulty lowers the quality of life. In addition, because eating difficulties are linked to reduced food intake, unbalanced nutritional status, and even deterioration of health, it is vital to pay attention thereto in the society, and people generally think now that the government/society should do something about caring for elderly people.○ Only about 30% of elderly people in Korea are engaged in economic activities. Additionally, many of them are not full-time employees, implying low employment quality and quantity. The income of elderly people shows a sudden decrease when they are about 60 years old, and their assets are shown to be the same when they are about 70 years old to reveal very high polarization (inequality). Meanwhile, the poverty rate of elderly people in Korea is ranked overwhelmingly high among OECD countries.Analysis of Food Consumption of Elderly People○ The Engel’s coefficient of elderly people is relatively high, and food expenses account for a large portion of expenditure. However, the food expenditure itself is greatly reduced as elderly people get older. Those in the 70 to 74-year-old group spend approximately 350,000 won, which is about half of the expenditure (about 680,000 won) by a household not older than 54 years old. ○ As elderly people get older, they eat more homemade food and do not dine out as many times as they used to. Although they have difficulties in walking, and complain of difficulties in purchasing materials and cooking with those materials, it seems that the economic factor plays the greatest part. Therefore, the outlook is that Chinese food or delivered food, for example, HMR, will play an important role in the senior-friendly food market.○ As elderly people get older, the amount of food intake decreases in many key food categories. While the decrease in grains, beans, vegetables and seaweeds is shown to be relatively small, the decrease in sugar, meat, seeds, mushrooms, fruits, milk products and oil is shown to be relatively great in our analysis. ○ As elderly people get older, energy and intake of the three major nutrient groups decrease. Insufficient nutrient intake and unbalanced intake of all nutrients are very concerning. This unbalanced diet results directly from a decrease in expenditure on food and food intake.○ Elderly people eat soft food whenever possible (39.0%), and chew food as many times as possible (40.7%). The percentage of elderly people suffering from chewing and swallowing difficulties is also high (37.9%, 59.6%).○ Elderly people tend to eat meals more times than other age groups. Nonetheless, their expenditure on food, food intake, and highly unbalanced nutritional status indicate problems with their food environment and their intake process.Analysis of Senior-friendly Food Market ○ There is no clear definition of senior-friendly foods in Korea at present, and they are also not clearly defined in the "Senior-friendly Industry Promotion Act". This study defines the senior-friendly food as "foods or meals specially manufactured, processed or cooked to enable elderly people who suffer from food intake difficulties (swallowing, chewing and digestion) to eat them easily, or foods which are specially manufactured, processed or cooked to contain nutrients that elderly people may be deficient in from an elderly consumer-oriented perspective." ○ The senior-friendly food market of Korea has not been vitalized yet, and food designed for patients (diet that fights diseases) is the main source. Liquid, powdery, viscosity-enhancing, jelly type, nutritious porridge, and easy-to-swallow type foods are available in the market. While about 1,500 types of senior-friendly processed foods are already available and sold in the market in Japan, Korea's senior-friendly processed food market is in its very early stage.○ The result of the survey by questionnaire to collect information from 42 food manufacturing enterprises shows that 32.5% of companies have experiences or are planning to promote business related to senior-friendly foods. Companies that had business experiences in the past said the reasons for business interruption as follows: no great profits, increase in selling prices due to product development, and lack of awareness of the need for senior-friendly foods.○ The difficulties in the senior-friendly food business expressed in the survey include: examination of marketability and planning (34.8%) followed by public relations and promotion (18.8%), distribution and sales (18.3%) and technology development (14.6%). Therefore, required policy elements are providing market information and support for public relations and promotional activities, and increasing support for technological developments for vitalizing the senior-friendly food market. In the survey, 77.5% of respondents said that the senior-friendly food market is not currently active, but 80% of respondents said it is likely to grow in the future. ○ In the survey by questionnaire to collect information from 120 nutritionists working for rest homes, 71.6% of them provided general meals to their residents, while 20.2% provided meals with finely chopped or minced-type food. It was found that they acquire information related to menus for elderly people from the Internet. The survey also showed that 35.3% of elderly people suffer from chewing difficulties, 18.0% digestion difficulties, and 13.4% swallowing difficulties.○ In the survey, 90.8% of nutritionists answered that they know about senior-friendly foods. The survey results also showed that 59.4% who have used senior-friendly foods answered that they are generally satisfied with the foods and 56.7% answered that they are willing to purchase finished products with senior-friendly certifications and indications in the future.○ The survey by questionnaire to collect information from 700 elderly consumers showed that only 13.7% of respondents were aware of senior-friendly foods and 15.9% felt an objection to purchasing the foods. The main reason for objection is that it means acknowledging that they are elderly, and the accompanying branding of themselves as elderly is relatively high.○ In ranking senior-friendly foods product attributes, nutritional balance, easy digestion, easy chewing and swallowing were the most important attributes for elderly people, and their preference was taste (30.5%), safety (22.2%) and price (21.3%). In the survey, 61.0% of respondents said that they would buy the senior-friendly foods in the future if available in the market, and 94.1% of the respondents answered that government certification is required.Policies of Korea and Other Countries for Senior-friendly Foods ○ In order to cope with the increasing aging population, the government has played a series of roles in the organization of the Aging Population Society Action Team, the establishment of the Future Society Committee, the enactment of the "Low Birth Rate and Aging Society Act" and the "Senior-friendly Industry Promotion Act". However, there are more things to be done for promotion of the senior-friendly industry. ○ The Ministry of Health and Welfare, responsible for the Senior-friendly Industry Promotion Act, has lost the engine to nurture the industry except for the support of the Support Center for Senior-friendly Industries. And the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy does not have the budget or human resources and therefore has suspended all related projects. Although the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs supports establishment of Korean Industrial Standards (KS) and R&D for senior-friendly food, there is no policy in place for supporting the industry and vitalizing the market. ○ In the early 2000s, Japan established and operated the UDF standard by the Japan Care Food Conference. Since then multiple care food specifications and standards have been applied in the 2010s. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries introduced a labeling system called "Smile Care Food" as a new care food category in 2016 to unify the labels and foster the industry.○ Smile Care Food is a labeling policy that covers labels for processed foods for elderly people suffering from chewing and swallowing difficulties, and those with concerns about lack of nutrients. Because this labeling provides simple and intuitive information to elderly consumers, it would be beneficial to refer to this policy in the future.○ Appetito, a German processed food company, is leading the market for providing catering and home delivery services by continuing to develop frozen food menus that can be consumed as a meal mainly by the elderly or disabled but can be used by anyone. It has also established an online ordering system and an individual delivery system, and makes great efforts to secure consumer’s trust.○ In addition, because Germany has already developed a nationwide campaign and standardized catering service / delivered foods for elderly people, it is advantageous to use Germany as a benchmark in the development of mid-to long-term goals to vitalize Korea's senior-friendly food market.Effect of and Condition for Vitalizing Senior-friendly Food Market○ To analyze the socio-economic effects of vitalizing the senior-friendly food market, a model analysis was made of the effect of reducing the cost for treating diseases and the effect of increasing consumer’s benefits. Our analysis suggests that creation and vitalization of the senior-friendly food market will reduce the social cost related to treating the diseases of elderly people with respect to 8 diseases by 524 billion won per year. The increase in the benefits to elderly consumers is estimated to be 349.2 billion won per year. If the premium by certification/standardization and management service of the government is added to the service, it will be increased to 662.3 billion won in total. Meanwhile, if the Korean senior-friendly food market is vitalized similar to the scale of the Japanese senior-friendly food market, it is estimated that Korea's market size will be 2.2 trillion won.○ Through the SWOT analysis, the condition around the senior-friendly food market was divided into internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (threats and opportunities) and examined. The following table illustrates the result. (이하 원문 참조)