Carrot, Health Functional Foods Now Allowed for Peer-to-Peer Transactions

Selected as Government Pilot Project Platform
Up to 300,000 KRW Total, 10 Times Annually

On the 7th, Danggeun announced that through a pilot project between the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and secondhand trading platforms, peer-to-peer trading of health functional foods will be possible for one year.

There has been a consistent demand from consumers to allow peer-to-peer trading of health functional foods. Accordingly, since last year, preliminary meetings of the regulatory adjudication committee and public citizen discussions have been held, and the pilot project will commence at 10 a.m. on the 8th. Danggeun was selected as the pilot project platform and has completed the inspection of related matters and system establishment to enable peer-to-peer trading of health functional foods.

Danggeun has established standards to ensure safe transactions while enhancing user convenience. First, to prevent sales for profit, users can post up to 10 sales listings per year, with a total amount limit of 300,000 KRW. Sharing is also included in the count, and if these limits are exceeded, posting may be restricted. When creating a sales post, users must select the ‘Health Functional Foods’ category, and a one-time identity verification process is required when posting a transaction listing in accordance with health functional food management standards.

Danggeun provides guidance on precautions and required information that must be followed when creating health functional food transaction posts. Due to the nature of the items, brand name, product name, expiration date, and price must be included. Care must be taken not to use expressions that could be perceived as having efficacy in disease prevention or treatment, as this may be considered false advertising and subject to sanctions.

A Danggeun official stated, “Since there has been consistent consumer demand to allow peer-to-peer trading of unopened health functional foods such as red ginseng and vitamins, we expect user convenience to increase further through this pilot project,” adding, “As the pilot project platform, we will continuously enhance policies and monitoring to ensure users can trade safely.”