As sodium and sugar intake in South Korea exceed recommended levels, the government and food industry have been attempting to reduce the amount of sodium and sugar in the food products. In line with these efforts, this study sought to examine how the purchase intention for low-sodium/low-sugar products vary based on consumers’ previous choices of low-sodium/low-sugar products and other consumer-related factors. For this study, two online survey-based experiments were conducted: one using soy sauce to represent a sodium-based product and the other using yogurt to represent a sugar-based product. The significant variables that influenced the purchase intention for both were the consumers’ previous low-sodium/low-sugar product choices and their propensity for food neophobia. Consumers who had previously selected regular products showed a lower intention to purchase low-sodium soy sauce or low-sugar yogurt. In addition, those who had a strong tendency toward food neophobia also had a significantly lower purchase intention for these products. Moreover, the lower the consumer′s unhealthy = tasty intuition (UTI), the higher the purchase intention for the low-sodium soy sauce, but UTI did not act as a significant variable for the low-sugar yogurt. These results demonstrate that government interventions for low-sodium products and low-sugar products should be differentiated.

Despite recent dramatic growth in seafood consumption worldwide, knowledge about seafood demand is limited relative to other protein sources. We model demand across three major protein categories (i.e., terrestrial meat, seafood, and plant-based protein) in South Korea to fill the research gap. This study models a quadratic almost ideal demand system (QUAIDS) by utilizing household panel data. The study takes this one step further by modeling demand within four seafood categories (i.e., fish, cephalopods, shellfish, and crustaceans). Sociodemographic variables, including health-related factors, are incorporated into the demand models. Results indicate that seafood is in a complementary relationship with terrestrial meat while it is a substitute for plant-based protein. All four seafood categories are a substitute for each other. The results reveal that people who take their health seriously tend to consume more seafood, particularly fish. The results have economic and marketing implications for which strategies could be adopted to influence seafood consumption.