Gyeonggi Special Judicial Police Crack Down on Illegal Pork Origin Labeling Practices

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province is launching a focused crackdown on violations of origin labeling targeting pork specialty restaurants.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Special Judicial Police announced on the 23rd that from the 25th to the 31st of this month, they will conduct an intensive investigation into "illegal origin labeling acts," such as selling imported or inland pork disguised as Jeju pork, which is highly popular among the public.

The origin of agricultural and fishery products refers to the country, region, or sea area where the products were produced, harvested, or caught. When indicating the origin of livestock products by region, the exact regional name must be labeled for sale or provision.

The investigation targets not only barbecue specialty restaurants and Jeju pork specialty restaurants within the province but also delivery-only restaurants, considering the increase in non-face-to-face consumption due to COVID-19.

The main investigation items include ▲false or misleading origin labeling (up to 7 years imprisonment or a fine up to 100 million KRW) ▲violation of storage standards for refrigerated or frozen products (up to 5 years imprisonment or a fine up to 50 million KRW) ▲cooking, selling, or storing products past their expiration date (up to 3 years imprisonment or a fine up to 30 million KRW), among others.

The special judicial police explained that since previous inspections of livestock product origins mainly focused on cases where imported products were falsely labeled as domestic by country name, management of cases involving false regional names might be relatively lax, which is why this investigation was planned.

Through prior information gathering, the special judicial police identified that some restaurants were falsifying the regional origin names.

In particular, Jeju pork is sold at a higher price than inland pork due to its clean image, high regional recognition, and rarity.

With recent decreases in slaughter volume and increased local demand causing prices to rise, and the continuous increase in the number of specialty restaurants, the province believes that some restaurants may be selling imported or inland pork disguised as Jeju pork.

The special judicial police plan to thoroughly investigate unfair profits gained through false or misleading labeling by businesses caught violating the law, refer them to the prosecution, and notify the relevant administrative agencies.

Yoon Tae-wan, head of the provincial special judicial police, emphasized, "Acts of selling products with false origin labeling are very unfair acts that deceive consumers and obtain unjust profits. We will do our best to eradicate illegal activities going forward."

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