Comparative Analysis of Foreign Consumers’ Perceptions of K-Food Emotions: Focusing on Reddit Cases

With the global spread of Hallyu, Korean food (K-Food) such as kimchi, tteokbokki, and bibimbap has become increasingly recognised across international markets. Despite this popularity, limited research has investigated how overseas consumers emotionally perceive K-Food, especially using unstructured, user-generated data. This study addresses this gap by analysing 23,300 posts and comments collected from Reddit, a global online community. Data were extracted through the Python Reddit API (PRAW) and subjected to text mining and sentiment analysis using TextBlob. Sentiments were classified into positive, neutral, and negative categories, with polarity scores quantified. TF-IDF analysis was conducted to identify significant keywords, and one-way ANOVA with pairwise t-tests was employed to examine statistically significant differences in sentiment across food categories.<br/> The results revealed that positive sentiment accounted for approximately 48 52% across all food items, whereas negative sentiment remained below 10%. Distinctive associations emerged: kimchi was linked to fermentation and health, tteokbokki elicited polarised hedonic responses, and bibimbap was strongly related to balance and variety. These findings highlight differentiated consumer perceptions of K-Food and demonstrate the value of integrating sentiment analysis with statistical validation. The study contributes to cross-cultural food research and offers practical implications for global branding, positioning, and communication strategies tailored to international markets.