Tooth Fractured While Eating Cookie, Refund Only in Store Credit?... Dujjonku Consumer Complaints Surge

118 Cases Filed with Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission in Past 3 Months...
Accounting for 6% of Dessert-Related Complaints

Jung Ilyoung: "Overhaul Hygiene and Advertising Systems to Preemptively Prevent Consumer Harm"

Recently, as Dubai Jjondeuk Cookie (Dujjonku) has surged in explosive popularity, consumer complaints and issues related to hygiene and labeling have also continued to emerge.

Dubai Jjondeuk Cookie (Dujjonku). Getty Images

On the 15th, Assemblyman Jung Ilyoung of the National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea analyzed data submitted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), and the Korea Consumer Agency. The analysis showed that there were virtually no statistics on complaints related to Dujjonku from 2024 through October of last year, but the numbers began to rise sharply from November of last year.

According to the complaint information of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, civil complaints related to Dujjonku stood at 0 case from January 2024 through October of last year, then increased from 1 case in November to 15 cases in December. In January this year, the number surged to 118 cases. This accounts for about 6% of the total 2,042 dessert and confectionery-related complaints filed in the same month. Among these, 90 cases have been answered, and 28 cases are currently being processed.

A similar trend was observed in the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s Integrated Food Safety Administration System. From January 2024 through October of last year, there were no reported cases or measures taken, but over the three-month period from November of last year to January this year, a total of 19 administrative actions were taken (18 cases of administrative guidance and 1 case of prosecution).

The 1372 Consumer Counseling Center of the Korea Consumer Agency also received 0 case in 2024 and only 1 case in 2025, but 25 cases in January and 1 case in February of this year, totaling 26 cases in just two months. Among the counseling cases, quality-related issues were the most common, with 10 cases.

Specific counseling cases included: (1) a case of false or exaggerated labeling where the advertisement claimed that Kadayıf noodles were used, but it was confirmed that substitute noodles (such as vermicelli) were actually mixed in; (2) a case in which a consumer’s tooth was fractured by a foreign substance presumed to be a pistachio shell while consuming the product; and (3) a dispute that arose after a company unilaterally canceled an online order and provided a full refund of 210,000 won only in the form of store credit.

Assemblyman Jung said, “Dujjonku barely appeared in the statistics but has rapidly turned into a high-risk item, with complaints, counseling cases, and administrative actions all increasing in a short period of time,” and urged, “In line with the pace of the trend, we must overhaul the safety and hygiene management across all stages of import, manufacturing, and distribution, as well as the systems for labeling, advertising, and online sales, in order to preemptively prevent consumer harm.”