October 1 to November 30, Targeting Delivery-Only Businesses
The Busan Metropolitan Police Department's Special Judicial Police Division conducted a planned investigation targeting over 350 delivery-only businesses, such as late-night snack delivery establishments, which do not have seating areas and operate exclusively through delivery apps. As a result, illegal activities were detected in a total of 16 businesses.
This investigation was planned in response to unsanitary business practices arising from the recent increase in delivery culture.
From October 1 to November 30, focused nighttime crackdowns were carried out on specialized businesses delivering a variety of menus including chicken, tteokbokki, stews, Chinese cuisine, and grilled fish.
The detected illegal activities included 16 cases: ▲ severe kitchen hygiene violations in 8 businesses ▲ false labeling of origin in 4 businesses ▲ storage of products past their expiration date for cooking and sales purposes in 4 businesses.
The businesses found were operated in a way that blocked the interior from outside view, and they remained open late into the night without properly maintaining basic hygiene such as cleaning the kitchen, revealing extremely poor sanitary conditions.
Additionally, due to sharp price increases in key ingredients like napa cabbage and red pepper powder and prolonged economic downturn, cases were uncovered where Chinese-made kimchi was used but falsely labeled as domestically produced, or expired products were stored and used for cooking.
The Special Judicial Police plan to take criminal action against the operators of 8 of the 16 businesses caught for illegal activities, and impose fines for administrative violations on the 8 businesses with poor kitchen hygiene.
▲ In cases of false origin labeling, under the ‘Act on the Labeling of Origin of Agricultural and Fishery Products,’ offenders face up to 7 years imprisonment or fines up to 100 million KRW. ▲ For storing expired ingredients for cooking or sales, under the ‘Food Sanitation Act,’ offenders face up to 3 years imprisonment or fines up to 30 million KRW.
Mayor Park Hyung-jun expressed strong determination regarding this planned investigation, stating, “To create a food environment that Busan citizens can trust and feel safe with, there will be no compromise on illegal activities.” He added, “We will continue thorough crackdowns and strong measures to eradicate illegal activities in delivery restaurants and protect the health and safety of our citizens.”
Violation of hygienic handling standards for food, including poor hygiene in the kitchen. Provided by Busan City
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