Probe targets summer health-food eateries; violations involve goat meat, chili powder and pork
Daejeon's special judicial police have busted five restaurants for violating country-of-origin labeling rules following a targeted investigation into food safety at summer health-food establishments.
The probe, conducted over three months from April through June, covered more than 100 restaurants and food manufacturing and retail businesses, examining compliance with agricultural and fishery product origin-labeling requirements.
Investigators focused particularly on businesses handling black goat meat, demand for which has grown as a substitute health food ahead of a ban on dog meat consumption taking effect Feb. 7 next year. Inspectors checked for false origin labeling and for cases where domestic and imported products were misleadingly mixed.
A total of seven violations were found across the five restaurants, involving goat meat (one case), chili powder (three cases), pork (two cases) and freshwater shrimp (one case).
Key violations included labeling Australian goat meat as a domestic-Australian blend, labeling imported mini pork trotters as domestic, labeling Chinese chili powder as a domestic-Chinese blend, and labeling a domestic-imported pork blend as purely domestic.
The special police completed suspect questioning of the violators on Monday and plan to refer the cases to prosecutors.
Under the Act on Origin Labeling of Agricultural and Fishery Products, those found in violation face up to seven years in prison or a fine of up to 100 million won ($65,500). Violations will also be published on the websites of the relevant district offices, and offenders will be required to complete origin-labeling education as an administrative penalty.
A Daejeon city official said the city plans to continue conducting targeted origin-labeling investigations to protect citizens' right to information and ensure fair retail practices. "We will strengthen management and oversight so that the origin-labeling system takes root voluntarily on the ground," the official said.
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
