Food ministry names winning low-sodium dishes at Iksan cooking contest

The food and drug safety ministry said that a team called Osaek Chaewumdan won the top prize at its 15th low-sodium and low-sugar cooking contest, held in Iksan, under the theme “a vibrant table for a hundred years.”

The team’s dishes, a perilla-seed chicken porridge with five-colour bibimbap and an omija water kimchi, used red peppers, carrots, broccoli and other coloured vegetables along with omija to build layered flavours.

The contest drew applications from 84 teams, of which 10 advanced through a document review to the final round, where they presented recipes designed to suit the diets of older people while remaining enjoyable for the whole family. Final winners were chosen by combining the judges’ scores with the results of a public online vote held from Sept. 29 to Oct. 8.

Prizes were 3 million won ($2,225) for the single top team, 2 million won ($1,483) each for two runners-up, 1 million won ($742) each for three encouragement awards and 500,000 won ($371) each for four special awards. The ministry said it plans to publish the 10 winning recipes in a “SamSamhan Bapsang” booklet with detailed instructions anyone can follow.

“Through the SamSamhan cooking competition, we have steadily discovered low-sodium and low-sugar recipes that all generations can enjoy healthily,” said Kim Yong-jae, vice minister of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, who served as a judge at the final round. “We will continue to widen communication with the public at cultural spaces and regional festivals that people enjoy visiting, in order to spread these reduced recipes.”

Kim assessed the entries as strong for preserving the natural taste and deep flavour of ingredients such as vegetables and seafood while cutting sodium and sugar.

This year’s event was held alongside the NS Food Festa, a regional food culture festival in Iksan, to reach a wider audience and encourage interest in healthier eating. It added that it will keep promoting reduction policies, including SamSamhan Day events and support for developing products with less sodium and sugar.