The rice brand evaluation program by the Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations (President Lee Haeng-ja) is a program intended to provide guidance to consumers in Korea’s vast rice market, with as many as 1,000 different brands. First launched in 2003, under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, this program has as its goal not only to arm consumers with necessary product information, but also to improve consumer confidence in Korean rice and boost the competitiveness of domestic rice crop, and to enhance the rice distribution system in the country.
Under this program, started in April, consumer organizations collect samples of 61 rice brands from across the country, nominated by local authorities and organizations, from retail outlets, and send them to specialized labs and institutions for a series of comprehensive evaluations including grading, determining composition of foreign varieties and evaluation by tasting, each conducted four times, and finally, two rounds of consumer sampling. The final results of evaluation and the top 12 brands are announced in November.
The 61 brands nominated this year by local governments and related organizations are leading brands meeting minimum requirements on level of brand recognition and annual sales, selected through a strict screening process.
As for the order of evaluation, samples are directly collected from retail outlets by consumer organization agents and sent to experts for evaluation. At the Korea Food Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as “KFRI”), a panel of specialists conducts sensorial evaluation (tasting) of the grains, and at the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service, the samples are visually graded. The top 12 brands are then selected based on these two evaluations, and the selected brands are subsequently sent to the National Crop Experiment Station of the Rural Development Administration (hereinafter referred to “Rural Development Administration”) for the analysis of composition of admixed foreign varieties. As for consumer organizations, they will be in charge of conducting consumer sampling whereby responses by individual consumers to the taste, smell and external appearance of the grains will be assessed.
The interim results indicate that 4 of the 12 selected brands were brands that made top 12 already last year, and the 8 others were newcomers to the club. By variety, 4 of the 12 brands were chucheongbyeo and, 4 others, ilmibyeo; in other words the two thirds of top 12 brands were accounted for by these two varieties. By region, Gyeonggi-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Jeollanam-do led other provinces in rice quality. The Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations, after the completion of the evaluation, intends to host a consumer rally to communicate the results, and also a seminar and food fair to promote the rice industry.
