Indonesia is a country in which most of its citizens are Muslim. This condition brings both opportunities for halal products and the rise of challenges to ensuring halal status. In line with that, the increasing interest in Korean products also brings a new challenge. Some of their products contain haram ingredients or do not have a halal label. Therefore, consumer awareness of Korean-food halal status is essential to protect themselves from Korean non-halal products. On the other hand, as Korean foods are consumed daily by Muslim society, the concern about their nutritional value and their potential effects on health is also growing.

This study aimed to explore the Muslim society's perception of the importance of Korean food's halal status and nutritional value.

This study is a descriptive mix-methods study that consists of cross-sectional and qualitative studies. The qualitative data were collected using focus group discussion and were validated using source triangulation. The total number of participants in this study was 81. The inclusion criteria were: Moslem, aged a minimal 14 years old, live in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY), and a Korean food consumer.

The results show that most participants are concerned about Korean food’s halal status. It also became their priority when purchasing Korean food. More than half of the participants have good halal food knowledge (60,5%) and practices (51,9%). In addition, most subjects were concerned about foods’ nutritional value, although only 17,2% of participants were always considerate about the nutrition aspects. They also have perceptions that Korean foods can be considered healthy or not, depending on the food type.

The Korean food halal awareness in the Muslim society in Yogyakarta is relatively high, so the stakeholder should support the information availability of Korean halal food items. Education about halal food criteria is also essential, such as what kind of ingredients make a product become haram and how to identify those ingredients.

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Mrs. Rachmawati Widyaningrum