Feeding an Aging Korea: The Care Food Industry and the Case for Policy Support

Rapid population aging has increased social demand for a stronger care food industry. Beyond the immediate purpose of putting healthy food in front of older people who can no longer eat normally, whether because digestive function has declined or because a spouse has died, some argue that spreading care food to healthy older adults as a preventive measure would also benefit the long-term soundness of National Health Insurance and Long-Term Care Insurance finances. Social demand is rising, yet for several reasons Korea’s care food industry cannot be expected to achieve meaningful qualitative growth if it is left to the market alone. The core problems are a fragile revenue base and structural constraints. On the surface, mid-sized and larger firms account for a substantial share of the companies selling care food, but market uncertainty has delayed their active participation. The firms that actually depend on care food for most of their revenue are overwhelmingly small and medium-sized enterprises, and the number posting operating losses has been trending upward. Two structural causes stand out: a persistent gap between manufacturing costs and the unit prices public institutions pay, and awareness so low that 66.4 percent of consumers surveyed in 2020 had never heard of care food. Both erode profitability across the industry, and neither is likely to resolve itself through market forces, which makes appropriate government intervention necessary. The policy agenda divides into short-term and longer-term tasks. In the short term, consumer awareness must be raised through expert endorsement, media exposure, and wider opportunities to try the products, and the picture of the market itself, which currently rests on assumption-based estimates, must be sharpened. Over the medium to long term, infrastructure needs to be put in place so that frozen and partially prepared care food can be used inside care facilities, the Long-Term Care Insurance fee schedule needs adjustment, and upgrading the industry through AI and age tech will be important.