"Insects in My Food"...Delivery Food Complaints Double in Two Years

ACRC analyzes three years of complaints related to food delivery
Poor restaurant hygiene, inappropriate packaging containers, and more

As complaints about poor sanitary conditions at delivery restaurants and the use of inappropriate food packaging containers have increased, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission has issued a civil complaint advisory concerning food delivery.

A delivery information sticker is attached to a restaurant in Seoul. Photo by Kang Jinhyeong.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced on the 25th that an analysis of 9,046 complaints related to food delivery collected in the civil complaint information analysis system over the past three years showed that the average monthly number of complaints related to food delivery last year was 354, which is 1.6 times higher than the previous year (219 cases). Compared with 2023, the figure increased 1.9 times.

The main complaints were requests for sanitary inspections of delivery-only restaurants, dissatisfaction with the use of inappropriate food packaging containers, and reports of false advertising and violations of country-of-origin labeling. Examples included complaints about hygiene such as insects found in delivered food, cigarette smells coming from the kitchen of delivery-only restaurants, and requests for sanitary inspections inside restaurants. In addition, there were complaints about receiving spoiled food past its expiration date, and about the use of inappropriate packaging containers that caused the bottom part of the delivered food to become crushed.

Accordingly, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission issued a civil complaint advisory and proposed improvement measures to related agencies, including strengthening hygiene management, enhancing oversight of the use of packaging containers, and reinforcing the management of country-of-origin and menu labeling.

Meanwhile, according to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, the total number of complaints filed last month was approximately 1.16 million, down 5.6% from the previous month (1.23 million). Compared with the same period last year, it increased by 18.1%. Compared with the previous month, the region with the largest increase in complaints was Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, where the highest number of complaints were related to reports of illegal parking at street corners of intersections and crosswalks.