A Survey on the Consumption and the Perception of Mushrooms and Mushroom Dishes among Koreans

Oh, Hae Sook; Park, Hee Ok; Yoon, Sun

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine Koreans preference in mushrooms, their nutritional knowledge of mushrooms as a source of Vitamin D, and five characteristics of six dishes consisting of common dishes and mushroom dishes. The data were collected from 2,777 subjects in various age ranges by means of a survey questionnaire. Variables, such as age, gender, diet quality and the degree of interest in diet were significant factors considered in relation to preference of mushrooms. Adults ate mushrooms because of their healthfulness, but this attibute was not a factor among adolescent students. The level of nutritional knowledge was relatively low and the ratio of "do not know" responses was higher than the ratio of "yes" or "no" . Generally, housewives, elementary school children and those who were healthy, ate floods because of health consciousness, and those who preferred mushrooms had better dietary habits. The characteristics of mushroom dishes, both as main and side dishes, had much more correlation with the factors considered for the subjects than the common dishes and one dish meals, respectively. Dietary altitudes, such as mushroom preference, frequency of mushroom intake and level of nutritional knowledge, were strongly correlated with the characteristics of the six dishes. It has been shown that mushroom dishes were recognized as nutritional, rather than delicious.