Chinese authorities fined the head of a pickled cabbage factory in China 2 billion won after a video showing a worker smoking and spitting went viral and sparked a hygiene controversy.
According to the Beijing Daily on the 2nd, the Market Supervision Administration of Xingcheng in Liaoning province imposed a fine of 1 million yuan (about 209.65 million won) on the head of the problematic pickled cabbage factory.
The company was also fined 50,000 yuan (about 10.48 million won) and ordered to suspend production and business operations.
The action followed the spread of a video filmed in October last year at a pickled cabbage factory in Huludao, Liaoning province.
The video showed a man inside a large pickling vat, smoking throughout the operation and spitting into the vat.
The video spread quickly not only in China but also in Korea, fueling concerns about hygiene across Chinese cuisine.
The Market Supervision Administration of Xingcheng said the company failed to properly establish and implement a food safety management system and did not assign a food safety manager.
It also noted that inadequate management was revealed across key procedures, including factory hygiene management, raw material inspection, production process control, product inspection, and worker management.