'Tobacco Twigim' and 'Nasa'... What Punishments Apply to Food Foreign Object Incidents?

The CEO Visited, Saw Personally, and Approved... Decision to Close the Store
After Eating Chicken, Two Natural Teeth Extracted Due to Gum Screw Implant

A cigarette butt was found fried in chicken at a franchise.
Photo by Online Community

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Gun-chan] Cases of foreign substances such as fried cigarette butts and screws being found in delivery food are increasing.

Recently, a controversy arose after a cigarette butt fried in oil was found in delivery chicken. On the 9th, a post titled "I ordered chicken and got fried cigarettes" was uploaded on an online community.

According to the writer, Mr. A, he ordered boneless chicken from a franchise chicken restaurant in Masan, Gyeongnam, through a delivery application on the 7th. While eating the chicken, Mr. A found a cigarette butt and contacted the store with a photo.

After canceling the order and receiving a refund, he reported the incident to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). He wrote, "The store owner later visited, saw it personally, and admitted it was a cigarette butt," adding, "I reported this to the MFDS. I also informed the headquarters and am waiting for their response."

The problematic store is known to be a franchise chicken branch in the Gyeongnam region.

According to a representative from the franchise headquarters, the branch was given a 15-day business suspension, but the store owner informed them that he would close the store, saying he did not want to harm other franchisees.

The headquarters is investigating how the cigarette ended up in the chicken and plans to conduct additional hygiene training for each store to prevent recurrence.

A screw was found while eating delivery chicken.
Photo by a reader provided

Last year, there was also an incident where a screw was found in delivery chicken, causing a child to have two baby teeth extracted. At the end of August last year, Mr. B, living in Seoul, found a small screw in the wing part of franchise chicken. His son, Mr. C, unknowingly ate the chicken and had the screw embedded in his gums, resulting in the extraction of two baby teeth.

According to the 'Five-Year Report on Foreign Substance Reports in Cooked Foods' released by the MFDS in April, the most frequently reported foreign substances in cooked foods over the past five years were insects and hair.

The MFDS states that for foreign substances like hair or small insects, a corrective order is issued upon the first detection. The second violation results in a two-day business suspension, and the third leads to a three-day suspension. For dangerous foreign substances such as metal or glass, the first violation results in a two-day suspension, the second in five days, and the third in a ten-day business suspension.

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