Baek Jong-won, chief executive of Theborn Korea, has faced various controversies related to the company's products, leading to repeated public scrutiny, and the first broadcast date of the entertainment program 'Chef of Antarctica' has been postponed.
MBC stated on the 14th, “The program's scheduling has been adjusted,” and “The exact broadcast time will be announced as it is finalized.”
'Chef of Antarctica' is a program co-planned by MBC and LG Uplus's 'Studio X+U,' featuring Chief Executive Baek serving warm meals to the winter crew in Antarctica.
As the program, initially scheduled to air in April, was postponed, some interpreted this as a fallout from the controversies surrounding Chief Executive Baek and Theborn Korea, but MBC explained that the adjustment was due to “news specials and the early presidential election situation.”
Led by Chief Executive Baek, Theborn Korea has been embroiled in controversy for about two months over the quality issues of 'Ppaekham' raised at the end of January, recent allegations of violating the Farmland Act, mislabeling of the origin of its products such as soybean paste, an operation of an 'employee blacklist' bulletin board in the Saemaeul Restaurant online cafe, and the use of pesticide sprayers.
Chief Executive Baek apologized at the first regular shareholders' meeting of Theborn Korea held last month, but controversies surrounding Theborn Korea have continued since then.