학부모의 정보요구도에 기초한 식품첨가물 위해정보전달 스마트폰 애플리케이션의 개발

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception and information needs about food addi- tives from the parents of elementary school children, and to develop a smartphone application (App) providing infor- mation about food additives, and finally to assess its educational effects. A survey was conducted in April 2013 by using a self-administered questionnaire, and total 358 responses were collected from the parents living in Seoul and Gyeonggi province. While purchasing processed foods, parents considered safety (40.5%) as the most important fac- tor, and first checking item except production and expiration dates was origin labelling (35.4%), and chose foods with less food additives (63.1%). Parents recognized food additives as the most dangerous (42.7%), and 75.1% responded the level of danger as 'very dangerous'. However, 82.4% of parents didn't have experiences to get educations about food additives. Based on their information needs including the safety, legal standards and the foods containing food additives. a smartphone App designated as 'Catch up Food Additives' consisting of the definition, safety, food label- ling guideline, management, animation about food additives was developed. When the App was exposed to the parents (n = 27), their negative perceptions on food additives were improved significantly. These results showed that provid- ing information and education about food additives using smartphone App was very fast and effective for the promo- tion of risk communication on food additives with the parents.