DATE :
13-05-18
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HIT :
2,206
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Date: October 22, 2005
Source: Korea Intellectual Property Office
The patent applications related with kimchi preservation technologies based on scientific analyses into the fermentation process of this veggie food are growing by leaps and bounds, as it is revealed that kimchi has preventive effects on such epidemic diseases as SARS and on various geriatric ailments in addition to its nutritional values highlighted with the advent of the well-being age.
Till a few years ago, the popularity of kimchi made and consumed on a small household scale had been overshadowed under the umbrage of modern fast-foods, and the demand of this timeworn menu seemed to be irrevocably dwindling. But its apparently doomed fate has turned over a new leaf, as fast-foods begin to earn negative conceptions what with the death rate owing to adulthood diseases being increasing and what with the social atmosphere pursuing the life in health. Kimchi has been ushered into the spotlight again by the new information that it prevents anemia, aging and cancers as well as constipation and hardening of the arteries.
The Korean people's elevated interest in kimchi as mentioned above and the increasing demand of packaged kimchi on the market have led to the research and development of the technologies to prolong the reservation period of kimchi and enable consumers to relish its fresh taste around the year, resulting in the persistent increase of the patent applications in this field for the past few years in a row.
Patent applications related with kimchi preservation technologies can be divided principally into the fermentation control technology to improve the preservation susceptibility of kimchi and the technology to manufacture the storage refrigerator engrafting the features of the traditional earthenware container called “kimjangdok” into the modern fermentation techniques.
The tendency of the patent applications related with kimchi preservation technologies for the past 5 years is explained inthe following statistics:
- In terms of the entity category of applicants, out of the total 1,170 applications, 3 cases were applied by foreigners, and 1,167 cases were by Koreans accounting for the most part, whereas 1,020 cases were filed by business enterprises taking up 87.1 % with 147 cases filed by individuals accounting for 12.6 %.
- In terms of the technology category, the number of the storage refrigerator related applications is 1,007 (85.4 %), the number of the applications related with the fermentation control technology to improve the preservation susceptibility of kimchi is 107 (9,2 %), and the remaining 60 applications (5.4 %) are related with the storage vessels for kimchi. The reason for the relatively higher percentage of domestic applications is regarded to be because the kimchi related technologies aretypical to the Korean culture and still unfamiliar to foreigners. On the other hand, the reason for the higher percentage of corporate applications is because the technologies are actively researched and developed mainly by large corporations prompted by the recent growth of the domestic kimchi refrigerator market.
As modern people's interest in health is growing, the functional merits of kimchi disclosed scientifically are creating a global zest, especially in Japan, for this Korean made food that is eventually stepping over the threshold to become a food of the world. It is therefore naturally expected that the demand of kimchi packaged for sale will be augmented constantly, accompanying a continuous increase in the number of patent applications related with the preservation technologies in its wake.
Lamentably, however, indigenous kimchi manufacturers are losing their foothold day by day of late with cheap Chinese-made kimchi eating into the domestic market, bearing down on school caterers and restaurants. The development of the premium kimchi with taste and preservability improved and up scaled to the high end palate is dearly required to stand up to the onslaught of low priced Chinese kimchi. From now on, the technologies focusing the efforts of research and development on this point
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