Gyeonggi Special Judicial Police Crack Down on 7 Businesses Cooking and Selling Substandard Food Near School Routes

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The Gyeonggi-do Special Judicial Police Unit has uncovered seven "conscience-lacking" snack food manufacturing and sales businesses near school routes that stored products past their expiration date for more than seven months without disposal.

The Gyeonggi Special Judicial Police announced on the 7th that from the 18th to the 24th of last month, they investigated 60 food service establishments around schools and academies in the province, including snack food manufacturers and sellers near school routes, as well as franchises preparing and selling hamburgers, ice cream, and pizza, and found a total of seven violations at seven locations.

Among these, four were franchise businesses, two were general restaurants, and one was a food manufacturing business.

The main violations included ▲ failure to label expired products as 'for disposal' and storing them for cooking purposes (2 cases) ▲ violation of standards and specifications (preservation and distribution standards) (3 cases) ▲ failure to prepare raw material receipt and issuance documents (food manufacturing and processing) ▲ use of raw materials manufactured or processed by non-food manufacturers.

A food service establishment ㄱ located in Yongin was caught storing seven types of ingredients, including rye flour that was seven months past its expiration date, in the warehouse and on the cooking counter without labeling them as 'for disposal.'

A food service establishment ㄴ in Yongin was also caught storing soft tofu, which was 13 days past its expiration date, for cooking purposes.

A food service establishment ㄷ in Yongin was found to be using cheese intended for refrigerated storage in frozen storage, and a food service establishment ㅁ in Pyeongtaek was confirmed to be refrigerating frozen unsalted vegetable rice.

According to the Food Sanitation Act, if expired products are stored for cooking purposes or displayed and stored without clearly marking them as for disposal or educational use, a penalty of up to three years imprisonment or a fine of up to 30 million KRW may be imposed.

Additionally, if foods with established standards and specifications are not preserved according to those standards, a penalty of up to five years imprisonment or a fine of up to 50 million KRW may be imposed. If foods manufactured or processed by non-business operators are used to prepare and sell food, penalties of up to ten years imprisonment or fines up to 100 million KRW may be imposed.

Yoon Tae-wan, head of the provincial Special Judicial Police Unit, emphasized, "We will continue to crack down on the hygienic handling and safety of children's snack foods and will strictly punish illegal activities according to relevant regulations."

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