Gyeonggi Special Judicial Police Crack Down on 57 Restaurants Violating Japanese Seafood Origin Labeling

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has cracked down on a large number of seafood-handling restaurants that committed illegal acts such as falsely labeling Japanese sea bream, scallops, and skate as domestic products.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police announced on the 12th that from May 24 to June 25, they investigated 480 restaurants and distribution, sales, and processing businesses handling imported seafood within the province and found illegal activities such as false origin labeling at 57 locations.

Among the major cases, a restaurant 'ㄱ' in Uijeongbu City promoted to customers with the phrase "We do not charge if it is not Heuksando skate" on the interior, exterior, and menu. However, the special judicial police investigation revealed that since June 2017, this restaurant had purchased over 5,500 kg (about 115 kg per month) of refrigerated Japanese skate at a low price, cooked, and sold it for about four years.

A restaurant 'ㄴ' located in Yangpyeong County was caught in this crackdown for falsely labeling Japanese sea bream and Chinese sea bass as domestic products more than 51 times (worth about 4 million KRW) from January to recently.

A restaurant 'ㄷ' in Anyang City was also caught for purchasing 97.2 kg of Japanese sea bream and 6.9 kg of Chinese black porgy since May, storing and displaying them in an aquarium, and falsely labeling the Japanese sea bream as domestic and Japanese origin and the Chinese black porgy as domestic on the origin labeling board.

The Origin Labeling Act stipulates that false labeling of origin is punishable by imprisonment of up to seven years or a fine of up to 100 million KRW.

The special judicial police will immediately order correction measures for restaurants caught for false origin labeling and will refer the cases to the prosecution after supplementary investigations.

Additionally, nine businesses separately caught for failing to label origin were reported to the relevant city and county authorities to impose fines.

In restaurants, the seafood subject to origin labeling includes 15 species such as red sea bream and octopus, and if live seafood is displayed or stored in an aquarium, the origin of all species must be labeled. Seafood distribution, processing, and sales stores must label the origin of all seafood and their processed products.

Meanwhile, since public concern about radioactive contamination from Japanese nuclear power plant wastewater is high, during this investigation, 32 random samples of Japanese seafood were collected and sent to the Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment for radiation testing. All test results were confirmed to be within the standard limits.

Yoon Tae-wan, head of the Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police, emphasized, "Acts of deceiving origin must disappear to protect consumer choice and establish a fair distribution order," and added, "We will actively manage and supervise so that residents can purchase seafood with confidence."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.