[Exclusive] Powerless Against E. coli Outbreaks... Unmanned Stores Suffer from Lax Management and Supervision

MFDS Changes Only Classification of Rest Stop Restaurants
Detailed Status Still Unavailable
Hygiene Inspection Statistics 'Questionable Reliability'

Recently, unmanned stores such as unmanned cafes and unmanned convenience stores have rapidly increased, but it has been confirmed that the government is not at all identifying detailed business categories. Although the classification of unmanned stores was changed to "rest food service" starting this year, there appears to be little difference from before, leading to criticism that this is a showy administrative measure.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to the office of Kim Min-seok, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the classification of unmanned stores was changed from the existing "food vending machine business" to be divided into "food vending machine business" and "rest food service." The food vending machine business is one of the food sales businesses under the Food Sanitation Act and was originally a classification to manage coffee vending machines. The plan is to change this to rest food service depending on the scope of automatic cooking by the machine and whether customer service is involved.

The problem is that even if the classification of unmanned stores is changed to rest food service, detailed inspections and violation status by business category are not aggregated. In effect, only the classification was changed from food vending machine business to rest food service. A Ministry of Food and Drug Safety official explained, "There are only business statistics for rest food service and food vending machine businesses. Currently, unmanned stores are not managed separately," adding, "If separate management is necessary, it can be reflected in the definition of business, but since administrative resources are required, the practical benefits must be considered."

According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's status of food vending machine businesses, 36,966 locations were reported as of last year. However, in the past three years (2020?2022), there were only 48 cases of administrative sanctions for violations of the Food Sanitation Act. By detailed category, there were 19 cases of violations of operator compliance, 14 cases of facility standard violations, 6 cases of failure to conduct health examinations, 3 cases of violations of standards and specifications, 3 cases of unauthorized business operations, 2 cases of unreported business, and 1 other case. Regardless of the type?vending machines, unmanned cafes, unmanned convenience stores?the number of inspections and compliance status conducted by local governments nationwide are only being tracked, so it is impossible to know what kind of violations occurred at which type of business. This raises doubts about the reliability of the data and inevitably leads to criticism that hygiene inspections are not being properly conducted.

On the other hand, according to a hygiene management survey conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency from March to June 2021 on 20 unmanned cafes and study cafes located in the metropolitan area, general bacteria exceeding the standard for food vending machine beverages (10,000 cfu/unit) were detected in the water intake parts of coffee machines at 6 locations. Coliform bacteria were also detected in some water purifiers and coffee machines. Among 12 stores equipped with water purifiers, general bacteria exceeding the drinking water quality standard (100 cfu/unit) were detected in the water intake parts of 10 stores. This is why more detailed management and supervision by authorities are necessary.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety recently claims to be focusing its capabilities on producing hygiene inspection guidelines for unmanned stores. According to the hygiene inspection guidelines, unmanned cafes are guided on the cleaning and hygiene management of reusable containers, spoons, and other cooking utensils, as well as the cleanliness management of food storage areas. For unmanned meal kit stores, whether they have reported for instant sales and manufacturing processing business when they wash, cut, and package contents for sale is inspected. For unmanned convenience stores and ice cream shops, the focus is on whether expired products are being sold.

A Ministry of Food and Drug Safety official stated, "Whether rest food service or food vending machine business, there is a trend to strengthen inspections of unmanned stores overall," but added, "Even general restaurants number in the hundreds of thousands, and manpower is limited. We have no choice but to select and focus based on the occurrence of incidents and accidents."

Assemblyman Kim emphasized, "It is important to thoroughly verify and inspect whether the guidelines announced by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety are being followed in the field." He continued, "Although unmanned cafes and others have changed from food vending machine business to rest food service starting this year, it is still difficult to grasp detailed status of unmanned stores by business category. As various types of food businesses emerge, continuous government attention and response are important to ensure public safety and a secure food environment."