"Jochiwon Peaches Found to Be Greek?"... The Betrayal of Souvenir Bread with Falsified Origin

A souvenir bread from Sejong, which was promoted as being made with rice and peaches produced in Sejong and was also selected as a hometown love donation gift, has sparked controversy after it was revealed that the origin was falsified.

On the 20th, Yonhap News reported that Company A, famous for its souvenir bread from Sejong, was caught by the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS) on September 30 for false labeling of the origin. Company A had been promoting its bread as healthy rice bread made without flour and 100% from rice produced in Sejong and peaches from Jochiwon. However, it was revealed that Company A falsely labeled Greek peaches as Sejong peaches and domestic rice origin as Sejong rice.

Promotional slogan of Company A. Company A Instagram

The bread from this company had established itself as a representative souvenir of Sejong, being designated as a hometown love donation gift from Sejong City. It also received subsidies exceeding 100 million won from Sejong City and the Agricultural Technology Center.

As the controversy spread, the CEO of Company A posted an apology on a local online community. The CEO said, "At first, we prepared a product representing Sejong by using Sejong rice and Jochiwon peaches, but due to high costs, we made a grave mistake by mixing in Greek peaches out of a small greed. I felt burdened by not being able to use 100%, but through this origin violation inspection, I realized once again that it was wrong and will accept the punishment willingly."

He continued, "The use of Sejong rice was temporarily replaced with other domestic rice dough because the contract with the dough factory we were dealing with was terminated and we could not find another factory. We have now signed a contract with a new dough factory and can make dough with Sejong rice again," he explained.

He also stated, "We will voluntarily return the designation as a hometown love donation gift from Sejong City."

Furthermore, he added, "We promise to use only 100% Sejong rice and Jochiwon peaches in the future. We will thoroughly manage quality and comply with origin labeling standards to ensure that such incidents never happen again. We will do our best to regain trust."

However, the public reaction was cold. Citizens who heard the news criticized through comments, saying, "Lies break trust. Is this acceptable to Sejong citizens?", "False origin labeling cannot be tolerated under any circumstances," "Return the government subsidies," and "The sense of betrayal is great."