Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the purchase of special and cooking patterns of eggs. This survey was carried out through questionnaire and the subjects were 435 housewives whose children were middle or high school students in Kyunggi-do and Inchon. The results are summarized as follows : 1) As for age, 66.4% of subjects were 40 years or older. Also 57.1% of subjects received a high school education. As for occuption, full-time housewives accounted for 60.5%. Monthly family income of 39.1 % was 1-2 million won. As for monthly cost of food, 51.7% of subjects paid less than 500 thousand won. Also 40.2% of subjects lived in apartments. 2)Most housewives knew about the sale of special eggs. However, they perceived that the price of special eggs was expensive. 3) The higher their age, education level. household income and food cost, were, the more frequent their purchase of special eggs was. 4) The reason for their purchasing special eggs was in order of nutrition and freshness. 5) Most housewives didn't trust the brands of special eggs. 6) The most popular method of cooking eggs was fried-eggs. Therefore, it is necessary to provide cheap, fresh and nutritious special eggs.

• Keywords: special eggs; consumer; purchasing behavior; cooking patterns