Over 300 Food Sanitation Act Violations This Year... Food Safety 'Emergency'

Democratic Party Rep. Seo Young-seok: "Urgent Need for Summer Hygiene Management"
"Delivery Increased Due to COVID-19... Consumer Health Concerns"
"Food and Drug Administration and Authorities Must Closely Supervise"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] It has been revealed that the number of violations of the Food Sanitation Act by major franchises, including jokbal (pig's trotters), bossam (boiled pork wraps), chicken, pizza, and snack foods, has reached 300 cases just this year. As the hot and humid summer season causes food to spoil quickly, it is crucial for restaurants to pay close attention to food hygiene and safety management, and for administrative authorities to conduct thorough oversight and supervision.

According to the status of Food Sanitation Act violations by major franchise categories submitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to Seo Youngseok, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, from January to May this year, the number of violations among major franchises such as pizza, chicken, coffee, fast food, convenience stores, snack foods, tteokbokki, and mala reached 287 cases.

Among these, the most frequent penalty was fines imposed, with 130 cases, followed by corrective orders (71 cases), business closures (58 cases), business suspensions (17 cases), facility improvement orders (8 cases), and administrative fines (3 cases).

By industry, convenience stores violated 111 cases, followed by chicken (69 cases), fast food (31 cases), and snack foods such as gimbap (23 cases).

By type of violation, breaches of hygienic handling standards were the most common with 75 cases, followed by foreign substance contamination (62 cases), secretive closures or shutdowns (57 cases), and failure to complete hygiene education (44 cases).

Recently, with the rapid increase in delivery food usage due to COVID-19, consumption of chicken, pizza, and other foods through delivery has risen, and according to Representative Seo, health damages to consumers caused by poor hygiene conditions have also increased accordingly.

The domestic franchise industry has grown to nearly 40 trillion won in scale. In the case of convenience stores, the combined number of stores of the three major brands GS, CU, and Seven Eleven reaches 43,077, with sales approaching 25 trillion won as of last year. The chicken industry is worth around 8 trillion won, coffee around 7 trillion won, and pizza and hamburgers each around 2 trillion won, all continuing to grow annually.

Representative Seo emphasized, "Although the use of delivery food has increased due to COVID-19, consumers find it difficult to directly check the hygiene status of stores in delivery cases, making them vulnerable in terms of health and safety. Thorough hygiene management by each company is essential, and investigations, inspections, and corrective actions by administrative authorities are necessary."