A woman in her 50s who raised Chinese bean sprouts in Korea and labeled the origin as 'domestic' was sentenced to prison in the first trial. The court ruled that if the crops were not obtained through a complicated process but grown through a simple process, the place where the seeds originated becomes the basis for the origin labeling.
Kim Mi-kyung, Director General of the Jeonju District Court's Criminal Division 4, announced on the 16th that a 57-year-old individual, referred to as A, was sentenced to six months in prison with a two-year suspended sentence and fined 10 million won for violating the law on the origin labeling of agricultural and fishery products.
A, who runs a restaurant in Gimje, North Jeolla Province, sold 56 kg of bean sprouts made from Chinese beans, labeled as domestic, from November 2023 to January last year. When charged with mislabeling, A's lawyer argued that 'the bean sprouts used in the restaurant were grown in Korea from Chinese beans, so labeling them as domestic is correct and not false.'
However, the court determined that simply sprouting or blooming the seeds or growing them larger does not qualify as changing the origin. It can be considered a change of origin if the seeds were imported and the crops were produced from them, but bean sprouts are different. The court ruled that due to the simple process of only controlling water, temperature, and humidity for the bean seeds, the origin of the seeds should have been indicated.
The court also noted that A was recognized for selling 11,200 kg of Chinese cabbage kimchi labeled as domestic from September 2018 to January last year, which led to the prison sentence. A purchased a total of 1,120 boxes of Chinese cabbage kimchi once or twice a month. It is reported that the unlawful profit earned by A from passing off kimchi stew made with this kimchi as domestic amounts to 1.8 billion won.