A study of consumer demands for menu development of senior-friendly food products - Focusing on seniors in Seoul and Kyeonggi area

Abstract The purpose of this study was to understand the characteristics of senior consumers' food-related lifestyle and to investigate their demand for menu development of senior' friendly food products. An one-to-one survey method was used for data collection, and the survey was conducted with 490 senior participants who are over 55 years-old living in Seoul and Kyunggi area. The main results of this study were as follows: Most participants usually spend from 60,000 to 150,000won on food a month, and the female participants played a decisive role on food purchasing and preparation. They preferred home meal for their three regular meals to bread, convenience food, or eating-out. For menu development of senior-friendly food products, the demand for food products using moist-heat cooking method was higher than those using dry-heat cooking method. Also, the respondents did not like strong taste such as salty, spicy, or bitterness in senior-friendly foods, and wanted to have a variety of noodle, kimchi, meat, seafood meals.Key words : senior-friendly food, menu development, consumer demand1)