"75 Companies Handling Seol Seasonal Products Caught with Expired and Unsanitary Management"

On the 26th, four days before the Lunar New Year holiday, citizens are shopping at Mangwon Market in Mapo-gu, Seoul. (The photo is not related to the article content) / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Ahead of the Lunar New Year, 75 companies that handled popular food products without proper hygiene management were caught.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that from the 10th to the 14th, it conducted a comprehensive inspection of a total of 5,618 companies manufacturing and selling Lunar New Year seasonal food products. As a result, 75 companies violating the 'Food Sanitation Act' and the 'Livestock Products Sanitation Control Act' were identified, and administrative actions were requested from the relevant authorities.

The main violations included failure to conduct health examinations (27 companies), failure to prepare production work logs (10 companies), violations of hygienic handling standards (7 companies), failure to conduct self-quality inspections (6 companies), storage of products past their expiration date (5 companies), and labeling standard violations (3 companies).

Additionally, the Ministry collected 2,490 samples including traditional Korean sweets (hangwa), rice cakes (tteok), alcoholic beverages, cooked foods such as pancakes and fried dishes, and agricultural, livestock, and fishery products. Testing for residual pesticides and food poisoning bacteria found 8 cases of non-compliance out of 1,413 completed tests. The relevant authorities disposed of the non-compliant food products, and testing is ongoing for the remaining 1,077 samples.

The Ministry also inspected 397 imported food items, including agricultural, livestock, and fishery products such as gosari (bracken fern) and chamjogi (yellow croaker), processed foods, and health functional foods like probiotics, for hazardous substances such as residual pesticides and heavy metals. Two non-compliant cases will be returned to the exporting countries or disposed of. Furthermore, the local food and drug offices or local governments will administer administrative sanctions to the offending companies and conduct follow-up inspections within six months to verify improvements.

A Ministry official urged, "We ask the public to report any observed violations related to food safety or suspected substandard food products by calling the substandard food report hotline at 1399."