"Kids Growing Taller"... 259 Cases of Online False Advertising for 'Height Growth Supplements' Detected

MFDS Inspects Online Shopping Malls and SNS
'74% Mislabel General Foods as Health Functional Foods'

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has identified 259 cases of illegal online advertisements violating the Food Labeling and Advertising Act related to children's height growth and has urged consumers to be cautious.

The Ministry began inspecting posts last month after noticing an increase in cases where general foods were advertised as effective for children's growth on online shopping malls, Instagram, Facebook, and other social networking services (SNS), as well as cases inducing joint purchases of foods and health functional foods. As a result, 259 violations of the Food Labeling and Advertising Act were detected. On the 7th, the Ministry announced that it requested the Korea Communications Standards Commission to block access to the detected cases and asked the relevant local governments to take administrative actions.

Ministry of Food and Drug Safety [Photo by Yonhap News]

The main violations include ▲ advertisements using expressions such as "height growth" and "height promotion" that cause confusion or misunderstanding by making general foods appear as health functional foods (74.1%, 192 cases), ▲ false or exaggerated advertisements regarding bodily functions such as "stimulating human growth hormone (HGH) release" and "supporting natural bone growth" (17.4%, 45 cases), ▲ misleading advertisements portraying foods as medicines like "kidney medicine" or "height-increasing medicine" (5.4%, 14 cases).

Additionally, there were ▲ advertisements with phrases like "osteoporosis prevention," "children with frequent diarrhea," and "children with anemia symptoms" that cause confusion or misunderstanding about disease prevention or treatment efficacy (1.5%, 4 cases), ▲ advertisements for health functional foods that differed from the content reviewed by the authorities (1.2%, 3 cases), ▲ and advertisements deceiving consumers by using purchase reviews or testimonials (0.4%, 1 case).

In March of last year, the Ministry also conducted a focused inspection of online posts advertising foods related to "children's height growth" and detected 226 cases. Despite ongoing crackdowns, cases of illegal advertisements continue to increase as parents' interest in their children's height growth grows. In particular, there are cases where expressions like "children's height growth" are used for nutritional supplement health functional foods such as calcium, or where consumers are misled by purchase reviews or testimonials, requiring consumers to exercise caution.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated, "This inspection revealed many illegal advertisements that cause confusion by making general foods appear as health functional foods," and urged, "When purchasing health functional foods online, consumers must check for the 'Health Functional Food Certification Mark' displayed on the product."