Doenjang Made with Chinese Meju... Baek Jongwon's Theborn Korea Referred for Farmland Act Violation

Production and Sale Using Foreign Ingredients
Violation of Agricultural Promotion Zone Regulations
Detected Breach of Sanitary Control Act
Some Allegations Cleared

Theborn Korea, a restaurant company led by CEO Baek Jongwon, has been referred to the prosecution on charges of violating the Farmland Act and the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act.

A photo of Baek Jongwon, CEO of Theborn Korea, giving a presentation at Theborn Korea's corporate briefing on the 28th of last year. Photo by Asia Economy DB

The Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Investigation Division of the Chungnam Provincial Police Agency announced on the 28th that it had sent Theborn Korea and officials from the Baekseok Factory to the prosecution without detention. Theborn Korea is accused of manufacturing and selling doenjang (fermented soybean paste) at its Baekseok Factory, located in the Agricultural Promotion Zone of Oga-myeon, Yesan-gun, South Chungcheong Province, from September 2016 to March this year, using foreign ingredients such as Chinese meju and soybeans from the United States, Canada, and Australia. In the Agricultural Promotion Zone, only food production using domestic agricultural and marine products as raw materials is permitted.

Additionally, the company is suspected of violating the Farmland Act by reporting two vinyl greenhouses (440 square meters) near the Baekseok Factory as agricultural greenhouses but actually using them as storage warehouses for doenjang ingredients. Theborn Korea demolished the greenhouses at the end of last year in accordance with administrative measures by Yesan-gun, and halted factory operations in June this year after the investigation began.

Furthermore, Theborn Korea was found to have violated the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act in November 2023 by transporting pork exposed to room temperature in a regular truck at a barbecue festival in Hongseong-gun, South Chungcheong Province.

However, the police did not refer the company for prosecution regarding allegations of violating the Food Sanitation Act, such as spraying sauce on meat with a pesticide sprayer at the festival and using a barbecue grill that had not undergone a metal inspection. The police explained, "Unless the cooking equipment was sold, it is difficult to apply the law based solely on its use."

Suspicions that a high school cafeteria under Yedeok Academy, where Baek Jongwon serves as a director, was built by encroaching on forest land in violation of the Forest Land Management Act were closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations (five years) for illegal land use.