Incheon Special Judicial Police, 30 Cases Detected for Violations Including Origin Labeling of Lunar New Year Seasonal Products

Seller Falsely Indicating Country of Origin
Photo by Incheon City

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Companies that falsely labeled the origin of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products targeting the Lunar New Year sales period were caught in large numbers.

The Incheon Special Judicial Police, in cooperation with the Fisheries Technology Support Center and the relevant district offices, conducted a special crackdown for two weeks from the 17th of last month targeting wholesale markets, fish markets, traditional markets, and large supermarkets, and announced on the 4th that they had caught 30 violating companies.

Among them, 23 companies are suspected of intentionally not labeling the origin of imported products such as flatfish, frozen pollack, dried pollack used for ancestral rites, and popular products like red sea bream, cod, and dried pollack.

Additionally, 5 companies were found to have falsely labeled B-grade domestic red sea bream and sea bass as the more expensive Japanese products, and also misrepresented Chinese products such as apples and shiitake mushrooms as domestic.

Furthermore, one company was caught operating a business collecting and selling edible eggs without registration, and one company violated the storage methods for frozen livestock products.

The special judicial police plan to investigate and refer seven companies caught for false origin labeling and violations related to livestock product storage to the prosecution, and notify the relevant district offices to take administrative actions against the 23 companies that intentionally failed to label the origin.

According to the "Act on the Labeling of Origin of Agricultural and Fishery Products," anyone who falsely labels the origin of agricultural or fishery products or makes misleading labels can face imprisonment of up to seven years or a fine of up to 100 million KRW.

Also, under the "Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act," violations of livestock product storage methods are punishable by imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to 30 million KRW. Failure to label the origin may result in fines of up to 10 million KRW depending on the severity of the violation.

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