An owner who passed off imported pork as domestic and served it to customers received a suspended prison sentence.
The Jeonju District Court Criminal Division 4 single-judge bench (Presiding Judge Kim Mi-kyeong) said on the 24th that it sentenced A, 60, who was indicted on charges of violating the Act on Labeling of Origin of Agricultural and Fishery Products, to four months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered 80 hours of community service.
A was indicted on charges of operating a restaurant in Muju County, North Jeolla Province, and selling 4,315 kilograms of imported pork as samgyeopsal and side dishes.
A posted a sign outside the restaurant that boldly read, "We serve only the finest domestic meat," and wrote on the origin board inside, "samgyeopsal: domestic."
Because the restaurant used imported pork from 2021 to 2025 for more than four years, many customers ate imported meat thinking it was domestic.
The court said, "The defendant betrayed consumers' trust and undermined the sound distribution order of agricultural and fishery products with false origin labeling."
It added, "Given the period of the crime and the amount of pork sold, the defendant's culpability is by no means light," but also ruled, "However, considering that the defendant has no prior record of similar offenses and corrected the origin labeling properly after the crime was uncovered, the sentence was determined accordingly."