Gangnam-gu, Establishes Nation's First Integrated Food Hygiene Support Center

Support Project to Utilize Food Promotion Fund, Previously Used Only for Enforcement Labor Costs, for Practical Hygiene Management Improvement in Restaurants... Up to 1.6 Million KRW per Business for Hygiene Consulting and Environmental Improvement, Targeting Over 100 Establishments to Obtain Hygiene Grade This Year

Gangnam-gu (District Mayor Jo Seong-myeong) has established the nation's first Integrated Food Hygiene Support Center.

The center announced its goal to achieve the "No. 1 nationwide ranking in the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's Hygiene Rating System" by implementing support projects such as customized consulting and cleaning/disinfection for small-scale restaurants using the Food Promotion Fund this year.

The number of food service establishments in Gangnam-gu is 17,845 (as of December 31, 2023), accounting for 10.5% of the total in Seoul, which is up to four times higher than other local governments.

In this situation, the district judged that simply conducting hygiene inspections and checks as before has limitations in improving the hygiene level of restaurants. Therefore, focusing on helping business operators enhance their own hygiene management capabilities, the district operates the Integrated Food Hygiene Support Center as a dedicated organization to systematically support this.

The center utilizes the Food Promotion Fund as project expenses. Until now, the Food Promotion Fund had been used mainly for on-site inspection labor costs related to hygiene complaints that increased after COVID-19, and had not been properly utilized otherwise. The district plans to use this dormant fund for the "Hygiene Rating Designation Acquisition Support Project," which can lead to practical improvements in restaurant hygiene management.

The restaurant hygiene rating system, integrated by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in May 2017 from various local government certification systems, evaluates restaurants on a total of 44 items through on-site assessments before designation. However, because the inspection items are detailed, business operators find it difficult to obtain the certification. In fact, Gangnam-gu ranks 5th nationwide with a total of 523 designated establishments under the hygiene rating system, but there is a large disparity. Most of the certified establishments are large franchises, department stores, and hotel direct management stores, while only six individual restaurants operated by private business owners have obtained the rating, placing Gangnam-gu at 128th nationwide by this measure.

Therefore, the district plans to support environmental improvements for small-scale restaurants to help them acquire the hygiene rating. It will select 120 establishments struggling with hygiene management and provide up to 1.6 million KRW per establishment, aiming for more than 100 individual restaurants to obtain the hygiene rating in the second half of this year.

Specifically, the center will support up to 600,000 KRW for three customized consulting visits provided by hygiene management specialists and up to 1 million KRW for environmental improvements such as cleaning, disinfection, food storage management, and organization. Business operators will bear 10% of the environmental improvement costs. The district is recruiting restaurants to participate in the support project from March 18 to April 19. Interested parties can check detailed information on the district office website announcement and submit application documents.

Jo Seong-myeong, Mayor of Gangnam-gu, stated, "This project is an administrative innovation case that transforms restaurant hygiene management, which was previously conducted only through inspections and checks, into a practical and comprehensive support project. We expect that through the Integrated Food Hygiene Support Center, residents' concerns about restaurant hygiene will be alleviated and the hygiene management burden on business operators will be reduced."