[Hannah Finkelstein]

Please provide feedback on The Impact of the Healthfulness and Front-of-Package (FOP) on Brand Performance: The Case of Food Industry in South Korea

[Mariea Hoy]

Does Korea have guidance regarding what type of healthfulness claims can be made? For example, “low/lower sodium”? Do we know if consumers are using FOP data to make their decisions or perhaps they rely on advertising too (where health-related claims would be more general – 25% lower in sodium for soup only to read the FOP where the original is 1000 mg of sodium/8 oz serving so the “lower” sodium is 750 mg which is still a very high sodium for an 8 oz serving in a daily meal. (As you might guess, I’m a BIG nutritional label reader with a primary focus on sodium.)

[Wonjoo Yun]

Mariea, thank you for your question. In South Korea, there is a guideline for nutritional claims by the MFDS (aka KFDA). For example, claims such as “lower”, “no”, “higher”, or “included” can be used on the packages under each expressions’ criteria suggested by the agency. 

The number of Korean consumers who are using FOP or health-related information to make healthier decisions has been increased according to the national Nutritional Facts Usage Survey conducted by the KOSIS. The survey shows how many Koreans are searching for nutritional facts when they consider purchasing any processed food. This was also accounted in our model.

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