A kimchi manufacturing company in Daegu was caught using a mixture of Chinese and domestically produced red pepper powder while falsely labeling it as domestic. The company is also suspected of using Chinese salt while misrepresenting it as domestic. The amount of the misrepresented products totals 37 tons. The violation amount is nearing 100 million won. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to file criminal charges against this company and will refer the case to the prosecution after an internal investigation.
As part of the preparations for the Lunar New Year holiday, the Korea Agricultural and Fisheries Quality Control Agency conducted a nationwide inspection of origin labeling from Jan. 6 to Jan. 24. On the 5th, it announced that 396 businesses were caught misrepresenting the origin.
The agency inspected over 10,000 establishments, including food manufacturing and processing companies, online sales businesses, and wholesale and retail businesses in agricultural products. An official from the agency noted, "Of the companies caught, 243 will be charged criminally (for up to 7 years in prison or fines of up to 100 million won) and will be referred to the prosecution after an internal investigation," and added, "Fines of 44.36 million won have been imposed on the 153 businesses caught for not labeling their products."
Park Seong-woo, the head of the agency, said, "We will continue to strengthen the promotion and inspection of origin labeling for agricultural products," and added, "In March, we plan to inspect the origin labeling for delivery apps and other online sales to establish proper practices."