The food and nutrition and foodservice industries play a vital role in improving quality of life and shaping a greener, more sustainable food culture that goes beyond just providing meals. It’s a move towards socially responsible eating, where health and the environment are considered at the same time.
What is one activity that you typically do that you can’t go a single day without? The answer to this question is eating, or eating well. Whereas in the past, eating was almost exclusively a domestic activity, today it is increasingly taking place outside of the home. This means that food, or food culture, has become industrialized, and the number of foods available to us has increased significantly.
Just a decade ago, foreign foods were Japanese and Chinese food from similar East Asian cultures, as well as Western food, which has its origins in Europe but is very Americanized, but what about now? German food, Vietnamese food, Thai food, and so on. The food of so many cultures, and even our own Korean food, has been adapted, fused, and diversified in line with the trend of globalization, and the food around us is much more diverse than in the past. Through these changes, we are not only filling our stomachs, but we are also getting the opportunity to meet and experience new cultures.
Humans eat to feel full and to obtain energy for metabolic activities. However, as mentioned above, eating has become industrialized, and people are now looking for qualities such as taste and health in their food. Food nutrition is a discipline that aims to improve human health through eating and thus improve the quality of life.
Food and nutrition can be divided into three main areas of study. First, food science is the study of predicting the nutritional composition of foods in human life and whether they are safe for human consumption. This includes the study of how regulations and standards related to food safety are formed and applied. Second, nutrition is the study of what happens to food physiologically and biochemically once it enters our mouths. Finally, foodservice is the study of how food is distributed, processed, marketed, cooked, and prepared to get to our tables, with some roots in business administration.
Foodservice refers to the act of providing meals that are supported and served to achieve an organizational purpose. In its broadest sense, catering includes eating out, but in its narrower sense, it only includes food service in a general sense, such as school lunches and military meals, whether or not profit is involved. In the Department of Food and Nutrition, we currently have two courses that deal with food service: Food Service Management, Group Food Service, and Practicum, which includes a variety of labs.
One of the reasons I was most interested in the catering field was that it was based on business administration, a field that I was interested in outside of my major, food and nutrition, and the second was that I was able to experience the field firsthand through various practical exercises and see many aspects of the field that I could not learn from books. These experiences were important in convincing me to pursue a career in this field. To give a simple example, I remember seeing spoiled ingredients in an expensive restaurant that costs over 30,000 won per meal and the amazingly thorough hygiene in a school cafeteria that costs 2500 won per meal.
Where, what, and how did you eat today? Did you eat in a school cafeteria? Or did you go out on the town with your significant other? Did you eat a salad and pizza, or did you empty a pot of sugar bean paste? No matter what you ate, no matter who made it, it passed through the hands of many people, from the distribution of raw materials to the hygiene management and cooking process. This is what the Department of Food and Nutrition aims to contribute to the environment through better management, the development of rich cultural products, and the efficient use of resources.
It is necessary to recognize that the food service industry is not just about providing food in large quantities, but is also an important factor in determining the quality of our lives. In recent years, there has been a growing effort to improve the quality of school meals by using eco-friendly and sustainable ingredients. This trend goes beyond just providing food, and is playing a big role in shaping a socially responsible food culture.
