Massive Violations of Origin Labeling on Agricultural Products During Lunar New Year... Pork Tops the List

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] The National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS) announced on the 30th that it conducted a comprehensive inspection of origin labeling from January 2 to January 20, focusing on gift and ritual items whose distribution volume increases during the Seollal holiday, and detected 474 violating companies (538 cases).

NAQS deployed 4,497 personnel, including special judicial police officers and cyber monitoring teams, to inspect 14,017 companies such as manufacturers and processors of gift and ritual items, e-commerce companies, and agricultural and livestock product wholesalers and retailers. The inspection focused on acts such as selling foreign products disguised as domestic products or falsely labeling them as famous local specialties.

The main violating items were pork (156 cases), napa cabbage kimchi (101 cases), beef (58 cases), tofu (36 cases), rice (22 cases), chicken (20 cases), and rice cakes (16 cases). The main violating business types were general restaurants (257 companies), meat sales businesses (72 companies), processing businesses (43 companies), and wholesalers (14 companies).

In particular, pork had the highest number of origin labeling violations at 156 cases (29.0%) as a result of using rapid testing tools that can determine the origin within five minutes on-site. Origin violations of Seollal seasonal foods such as rice cakes and wild greens were detected in 56 cases (10.4%), mainly involving rice, black sesame, bracken, and balloon flower root.

For the 474 companies detected this time, criminal charges and fines were imposed according to the "Act on the Labeling of Origin of Agricultural and Fishery Products."

Among them, 264 companies with "false labeling" were criminally charged and will face "imprisonment for up to seven years or a fine of up to 100 million won" after prosecution procedures. For the 210 companies detected for "non-labeling," fines totaling 52 million won were imposed.

Seo Haedong, head of NAQS, said, "This year as well, we will strengthen cooperation with related organizations such as the Korea Customs Service and local governments so that consumers can purchase agricultural products with confidence. We will continue to develop and utilize scientific origin verification methods, such as beef testing tools, and do our best to establish a sound distribution order for agricultural products."

[Image source=Yonhap News]