General Food but 'Gongjindan'?…MFDS Detects 82 Cases of False Advertising

Intensive Inspection of Online Posts Advertising Herbal Prescription Names and Similar Terms

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] A total of 82 cases of unfair advertisements using names such as Gongjindan and Ssanghwatang on general food products were detected.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on the 21st that, in cooperation with the Korean Medicine Doctors Association, it conducted a focused inspection of online posts advertising foods using 'Korean herbal medicine prescription names and similar names' and found 82 violations of the 'Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods.' For these cases, requests for access blocking to the Korea Communications Standards Commission and administrative actions to the relevant local governments were made.

The main violations involved unfair advertisements that caused misunderstanding or confusion by making general foods appear as medicines. Other processed products accounted for the largest share at 65.8% (54 cases), followed by various teas such as solid and liquid teas at 22.0% (18 cases), and other processed agricultural products at 12.2% (10 cases).

In particular, many of the advertisements detected in this inspection involved other processed products such as pill (丸) products and liquid or semi-solid products being mistaken for medicines.

Examples include advertisements using names like Gongjindan, Gongjinhwan, Ssanghwatang, and Sipjeondaebotang on general foods. There were also advertisements that misled consumers into believing the foods were effective in preventing or treating diseases such as degenerative arthritis, colds, or diabetes-related concerns.

Since last year, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has been cooperating with the Korean Medicine Doctors Association to prevent damages caused by unfair advertisements using Korean herbal medicine prescription names and similar names. After the association conducts its own monitoring and provides information to the ministry, the ministry analyzes and investigates the data to detect violations.

This inspection was conducted based on the monitoring results carried out by the Korean Medicine Doctors Association from March to April this year.

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