Market Study of Soy Sauces in Cambodia

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Techno-Science Research Journal 8 (2020) 64-68
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Techno-Science Research Journal
Journal Homepage: www.ric.itc.edu.kh
64
Market Study of Soy Sauces in Cambodia
Luka Ly1, Monychot Tepy Chanto2,3, Chanthol Peng2,3, Reasmey Tan2,3*
1 Graduate School, Institute of Technology of Cambodia, Russian Federation Blvd., P.O. Box 86, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
2 Food Technology and Nutrition Research Unit, Research and Innovation Center, Institute of Technology of Cambodia,
Russian Federation Blvd., P.O. Box 86, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
3 Faculty of Chemical and Food Engineering, Institute of Technology of Cambodia, Russian Federation Blvd.,
P.O. Box 86, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Received: 29 June 2020; Accepted: 08 November 2020; Available online: xxxx
Abstract: Soy sauce is a liquid condiment originated from China and is widely used not only in China, but also in Asia including
Cambodia. Although some soy sauces have been produced in Cambodia, their quality has not yet been widely recognized in Cambodia and
the study of soy sauces in Cambodia is still limited. The objective of this survey aimed to collect information about the current status on soy
sauce consumption in Cambodia, for future research and development of Cambodian soy sauce. Survey’s participants were selected from the
age of 11 years old and up. Each participant was asked to answer all 12 questions before submitting their answers. As a result, among 655
respondents, the average of household size was 4.49 people.Approximately 53.4% of participants consume less than one bottle per month
with their family and 41.9% of consumers used soy sauce between one and three bottles of soy sauce with the daily consumption in this group
being about 4.6 mL per day. Salty-sweet soy sauce is the most preferable taste followed by the slightly salty taste. The volumes of the their
favorite soy sauce bottle were 450 mL, 500mL and 250 mL. Out of 50 soy sauce brands, the soy sauces that had the code C2 (Cambodia’s soy
sauce), V3 (Vietnam’s soy sauce), TH5 and TH3 (Thailand’s soy sauce), are the brands that many respondents in the survey have used, and
83.80% of respondents have consumed the soy sauce that costs between 2500 riels and 7900 riels. In conclusion, the soy sauce brands (C2,
V3, TH5 and TH3) are the brands that are consumed by most of the respondents. Among them, TH5 has higher quality by comparing with the
Cambdodian soy sauce standard. Salty sweet taste is the favorite taste by the respondents.
Keywords: Soy sauce; Survey; Cambodia; Brand; Taste
1. INTRODUCTION1
Soy sauce has been a liquid condiment originated from
China since approximately 2200 years ago. It is produced by
mixing the steamed soybeans with roasted and grided wheat,
and Koji mold spores and incubate for 3 to 5 days followed
by fermentation in brine for about 3 to 6 months (Leboffe
and Pierce, 2006). People in Asian countries such as China,
Japan, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and more
than 90% of Cambodian people consumed soy sauce
(Theary et al., 2013). Soy sauce is normally used in cooking,
such as in soups, frying, roasting, marinating, and also for
dipping. It is widely used in the purpose of food, for
improving the taste, flavor and aroma, as it is the main
source of natural umami taste (Marcus, 2019). Not only that,
scientists found that soy sauce also contains bioactive
compounds with anticarcinogenic, antimicrobial,
* Corresponding author: Reasmey Tan
E-mail: rtan@itc.edu.kh; Tel: +855-12-602-202
antioxidative, and antiplatelate activities (Murooka and
Yamshita, 2008) and also antiallergernic activity
(Kobayashi, 2005). The soy sauce consumption and variety
in Cambodia is unknown. Moreover, the quality and safety
of the soy sauces has limited study. The objective of this
market study of soy sauces in Cambodia was to collect
information on the current status on soy sauce consumption
in Cambodia for future research and development of
Cambodian fermented soy sauce.
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1 Survey
The online survey was conducted from 01 February
2020 until 15 June 2020 (using Google forms). Aiming on
participants whose age are from 11 years old and up. The
survey link was sent through Facebook, e-mail, asking
consumers directly, or by telephone calls for collecting the
data of current status on soy sauce consumption in

Ly et al./Techno-Science Research Journal 8 (2020) 64-68
65
Cambodia. There were 12 questions containing in survey
including three open-ended and nine close-ended questions:
1. Sex, 2. Occupation, 3. Age, 4. Frequency of using soy
sauce, 5. Favorite taste, for knowing which taste that
Cambodian people like to eat, 6. which brand of soy sauce
that they like, production’s country and reason of their
preference, 7. Family members that they are living with, 8.
Volume of soy sauce per bottle that they use, 9. How many
bottles of soy sauce they buy per month, 10. Purchasing
location, 11. Price of soy sauce, and 12. Their support on
future soy sauce product with the good quality and safety for
comsumer.
2.2. Data analysis
Survey data were exported from online survey Google
form to an excel file, then data in excel file were transferred
to the statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version
20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Descriptive statistic are
reported for all variables such as calculate the percentage,
validate the percentage. Pearson chi-square test was used to
evaluate associations between categorical variables.
Differences were considered statistically significant for
p < 0.05. OriginPro was used for drawing Pie diagrams
(Version 2018, OriginPro Inc.). Average daily soy sauce
comsumption was calculated by diving the total volume of
soy sauce used per month in the household with the total
members within 30 days.
2.3. Physicochemical analysis of soy sauces
The favorite soy sauce brands used by respondents were
bought from the markets to analyze their physicochemical
characteristics. The salt concentration was analyzed by using
salt-meter (Atago model ES-421), pH measurement was
analysed by using pH meter (OHAUS, Starter300), soluble
salt free solid content was analysed by following the method
as described in (GB/T, 18186-2000), amino nitrogen was
analysed as described in (GB/T, 18186-2000), and total
nitrogen was analysed as described in (AOAC, 991.20). The
soy sauce samples were analysed in triplicate and data was
represented in the form of mean ± standard deviation (SD).
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey's test was
performed to evaluate significant difference in the
physicochemical parameters from different samples, and a
significant difference was defined as p < 0.05, and one-way
ANOVA was conducted using SPSS software.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the survey of 655 people, 64.4% were female and
35.6% were male. Participants were mostly in the age
between 18 to 49 years old (Table 1).
Table 1. Age of the respondents
Age
Participants
Percentage (%)
11 – 17
8
1.2
18 – 29
496
75.7
30 – 49
130
19.8
50 – 64
13
2.0
65+
8
1.2
Total
655
100
According to the survey data as shown in Fig. 1, the
consumption of soy sauce in Cambodia varied. 38.8% of
respondents consumed soy sauce 2 or 3 times per week, and
27.2% of respondents consumed soy sauce 2 to 4 tims per
month. 18% of respondents consumed soy sauce 1 time per
month or least, while 16% of respondents consumed soy
sauce every day.
18%
27.2%
38.8%
16% Daily
2 or 3 times per week
2 to 4 times per month
Once a month or less
Fig. 1. Consumption of soy sauce by the respondents
The rate of soy sauce consumption in each family was
different; there were 53.4% of participants consumed soy
sauce less than one bottle per month, followed by 26.4%
who consumed soy sauce one bottle per month (Table 2).
Table 2. Consumption of soy sauce by respondents per
month
Frequency
Participants
Percentage (%)
One bottle per month
173
26.4
Two bottles per month
75
11.5
Three bottles per month
31
4.7
Least than one bottle per month
350
53.4
Other
26
4.0
Total
655
100
For estimating daily consumption, the total household
size, number of soy sauce bottles used per month and the
volume of soy sauce per bottle were used. As shown in
Table 3, the minimum, maximum and average household

Ly et al./Techno-Science Research Journal 8 (2020) 64-68
66
sizes in the survey consisted of 1, 14, and 4.5 people,
respectively. This number was very close with the average
number of Cambodian household size of 4.6 based on the
census data from the national institute of statistcs (NIS,
2013).
Table 3. Total number of residents currently residing in the
household
Household size
Participants
Percentage
(%)
*Valid
percentage (%)
1
42
6.4
6.5
2
76
11.6
11.7
3
83
12.7
12.8
4
132
20.2
20.3
5
146
22.3
22.5
6
75
11.5
11.6
7
49
7.5
7.6
8
20
3.1
3.1
9
7
1.1
1.1
10
15
2.3
2.3
11
2
0.3
0.3
Missing
6
0.9
Total
655
100
*Valid percentage is the percent when missing data are excluded
from the calculations.
The volume of soy sauce bottle and the design of the
bottle were also very important in attracting the consumers
as it was an innovativeness (Goldsmith et al., 2010). As
shown in Table 4, about 31.3% of respondents used 450 mL
soy sauce bottle, followed by 500 mL (20.8%) and 250 mL
(18.5%) bottles, respectively.
Table 4. The volume of soy sauce per bottle
Soy sauce
volume
Participants
Percentage
(%)
*Valid
percentage (%)
450
205
31.3
32.0
500
136
20.8
21.3
250
121
18.5
18.9
200
58
8.9
9.1
600
31
4.7
4.8
150
17
2.6
2.7
300
14
2.1
2.2
350
10
1.5
1.6
330
9
1.4
1.4
680
7
1.1
1.1
Missing
15
According to Table 2, about 53.4% of people surveyed
consumed soy sauce less than one bottle per month. As the
consumption of soy sauce in Cambodia was still low, big
bottles of soy sauce were not often produced by Cambodian
soy sauce manufacturers. Approximately 42.6% of
respondents consumed one to three bottles of soy sauce per
month and the average daily consumption is 4.6mL. Even
though soy sauce has been consumed by almost all
Cambodian people according to the survey, the consumption
of soy sauce in Cambodia was still low about 4.6 mL or
lower by comparing with the average of daily soy sauce
consumption in China 8.1 mL (CCDCP, 2002), while the
daily consumption of soy sauce in Japan was about 30 mL
per person (Kobayashi, 2013). Based on the study of fish
sauce, soy sauce, and vegetable oil fortification in Cambodia
in 2013, the average daily soy sauce consumption in
Cambodia was about 10 mL (Theary et al., 2013); therefore,
the daily soy sauce consumption in Cambodia could be
around 4.6 mL to 10 mL. Nowadays there are many soy
sauces sold in Cambodia; soy sauce has many tastes and
flavors such as saltiness, sweetness, sourness and the other
tastes that were determined by sensory test. Some soy sauces
had high amount of salt and sugars, while some other soy
sauces had low amount of sugars. For example, Shiro shoyo
or white soy sauce had salt concentration from 15% to 20%
and 16.7% reducing sugars. On the other hand, Koikuchi
shoyu or dark colored soy sauce reducing salt had salt
concentration only 8.9% and 3.53% reducing sugars
(Yokotsuka, 1986). In the survey, taste of soy sauce was
divided into 6 groups for finding the soy sauce taste that
Cambodian people like to eat such as salty, sweet, slightly
salty, slightly sweet, salty sweet, and slightly salty and
slightly sweet. As shown in Table 5, salty sweet is the taste
that the respondents like the most, followed by slightly salty.
Soy sauce brands and the soy sauce tastes were compared by
using Chi square test with the signification p < 0.05. High
consumption of salt or sodium can be very harmful for the
health, especially for the people suffering from high blood
pressure (He and MacGregor, 2010).
Table 5. Favorite taste for the respondents
Taste
Participants
Percentage (%)
p-value
Salty
31
4.7
0.007*
Sweet
31
4.7
Salty and sweet
400
61.1
Slightly salty
141
21.5
Slightly sweet
16
2.4
Slightly sweet and
slightly salty
36
5.5
Total
655
100
* Soy sauce brands and tastes were compared using Chi-square test
(Pearson) with the signification p < 0.05.
For making soy sauce, high amount of salt is needed but
it is not good for health if consume much salty soy sauce.
Seeing this issue, there is more and more interesting research
on reducing salt in soy sauce fermentation for making a
slightly salty soy sauce (Song et al., 2015). In the future as
people become more knowledgeable with healthcare, low
sodium soy sauce could be a popular product in Asian
countries.
The price of soy sauce could effect the consumption of
soy sauce in Cambodia. There were 53.10% of respondents

Ly et al./Techno-Science Research Journal 8 (2020) 64-68
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who consumed the soy sauces that cost 2500 – 3900 riels
and 30.70% of respondents consumed the soy sauce that cost
4000 – 7900 riels, thus there were 83.8% of respondents
who consumed soy sauces that have a price between 2500
and 7900 riels. Soy sauce brands and the cost per bottle were
compared by using Chi square test with the signification
p < 0.05 (Table 6).
Table 6. Soy sauce’s cost per bottle
Price
Participants
Percentage (%)
p- value
2500 – 3900 Riel
348
53.10
0.001*
4000 – 7900 Riel
201
30.70
8000 – 11900 Riel
51
7.80
12000 – 15900 Riel
31
4.70
16000 – 19900 Riel
9
1.40
20000 – 24000 Riel
3
0.50
Higher than 240000 Riel
12
1.80
Total
655
100
*Soy sauce brands and prices were compared using Chi-square test
(Pearson) with the signification p < 0.05.
There are many brands of soy sauce sold in Cambodia
however, there are just 50 brands of soy sauce that were
mentioned by 655 respondents. There are 9 soy sauce brands
that have the percentage of consumption higher than 1%.
Among that, soy sauces C2 (Cambodia’s soy sauce), V3
(Vietnam’s soy sauce), TH5 and TH3 (Thailand’s soy
sauces) had the most consumption (Table 7).
Table 7. Favorite soy sauce brands used by respondents
Brand
Participants
Percentage
(%)
*Valid percentage
(%)
C2
212
32.4
33.4
V3
106
16.2
16.7
TH5
86
13.1
13.5
TH3
46
7.0
7.2
C5
35
5.3
5.5
J1
19
2.9
3.0
C10
15
2.3
2.4
F
10
1.5
1.6
C11
8
1.2
1.3
Missing
20
*Valid percentage (%) is the percent when missing data are
excluded from the calculations.
As described above, the favorite taste consumed by the
respondents was salty and sweet, followed by the slightly
salty. Four soy sauce brands that had the most consumption
were selected to investigate their physicochemical
characteristics to give some insight of the saltiness and their
quality. As shown in Table 8, C2 and TH3 had the salt
amount about 16.17% and 20.63%, respectively. These soy
sauces brands which were also mentioned by the
respondents in the survey that had the salty sweet taste. V3
and TH5 had salt content approximately 9.83% and 8.77%,
respectively. These soy sauce brands of the slightly salty
taste were mentioned by the participants that they like. By
comparing the results with the Cambodia soy sauce standard
CS 066:2011, TH5 was a soy sauce falling in the
specification defined by the Cambodia soy sauce standard
CS 066:2011). Not only taste and quality but also the price,
the innovativeness, and the brand loyalty that are very
important to attract the consumers (Goldsmith et al., 2010).
By looking at the price, C2 had a cheap price which costed
2000 to 2500 riels per 450 mL plastic bottle and their
handicrafts has established since 1981. V3 costed 3000 to
3500 riels per 250mL plastic bottle; TH5 costed 7000 to
8000 riels per 600mL glass bottle and TH3 costed 3500 to
4000 riels per 300 mL plastic bottle. Therefore, the price, the
taste, the design of the bottle, innovativeness, brand loyalty
and the quality are very important to attract the consumers.
Table 8. Physicochemical quality of the most consumed soy
sauces
Parameters
Soy sauce brands
C2
V3
TH5
TH3
CS
Salinity (%)
16.17± 0.06
9.83 ± 0.06
8.77 ± 0.06
20.63±0.12
≤ 20%
SSFSC (%)
2.3 ± 0.05
8.17 ± 0.14
27.72±0.18
2.97±0.61
≥ 15%
AN (%)
0.19 ± 0.03
0.25 ± 0.01
0.93 ± 0.02
0.10±0.02
≥ 0.26%
TN (%)
0.41 ± 0.05
0.6 ± 0.05
1.98±0.02
0.25±0.05
≥ 0.8%
pH
4.35 ± 0.01
4.44 ± 0.01
4.85±0.03
4.07±0.02
4.2-4.6
CS: Cambodia soy sauce standard CS 066:2011. SSFSC: Soluble
salt free solid contents. AN: Amino nitrogen. TN: Total nitrogen.
All samples were performed in triplicate, all results were
significant different (p <0.05).
Soy sauces can be found and bought at many places in
Cambodia such as home store, supermarket, local market
etc. As shown in Fig. 2, 38.46% of respondents bought soy
sauce from local markets, followed by 31.47% of
respondents who bought from the home store, 26.97% of
respondents bought from supermarket and 3.1% of
respondents bought soy sauce from other sources or
homemade.
26.97%
3.1%
38.46%
31.47%
Home store
Market
Others
Supermarket
Fig. 2. Purchasing soy sauce location by the respondents

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In the survey, there were 98.90% of respondents who
support the development of new soy sauce product that is
safe and has high quality. Therefore, a good quality of
Cambodian soy sauce made by fermentation should be
developed.
4. CONCLUSIONS
According to the survey, soy sauce brands (C2, V3,
TH5 and TH3) were the brands that were consumed by most
of the respondents. Among them, C2 (Cambodia’s soy
sauce) and TH5 (Thailand’s soy sauce) had salt amount
more than V3 (Vietnam’s soy sauce) and TH3 (Thailand’s
soy sauce). By comparing with Cambodia soy sauce
standard, TH5 (Thailand’s soy sauce) had higher quality
than C2, V3, and TH5. Salty sweet taste was the favorite
taste mentioned by the respondents followed by the slightly
taste. The price, the taste, the quality and the design of the
bottle are also very important to attract the consumers.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to acknowledge the Ministry of
Education, Youth and Sport for financial support through
Higher Education Improvement Project Research Grant.
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