The National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS) announced on the 26th that it has uncovered 33 deceptive distribution companies that misrepresented the grade or variety of grain they sold.
In line with the shipment of new rice, NAQS deployed 3,717 special judicial police officers and honorary inspectors starting Sep. 18 to conduct special inspections on the deceptive distribution of grain.
During this inspection, NAQS investigated about 6,000 locations, including grain processing, sales, and repackaging companies nationwide, uncovering fraudulent distribution activities in 33 places. Among them, 15 locations were criminally charged, and 18 locations were subjected to fines amounting to 8.23 million won.
A key case involved a grain processing company falsely labeling ordinary-grade rice as top grade on the packaging. Another company was found repackaging glutinous rice produced last year and misleadingly selling it as the 2024 harvest.
Additionally, NAQS uncovered further cases using genetic analysis, where the variety indicated on the packaging did not match the actual variety.
Ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, NAQS plans to strengthen special inspections of origin and grain labeling for companies that handle imported rice and those manufacturing or selling traditional holiday foods such as rice cakes.
Park Seong-woo, head of NAQS, noted, “We will thoroughly oversee fraudulent distribution to ensure consumers can purchase with confidence and reinforce checks of origin and quality labeling as the holidays approach.”