Incheon City Conducts Special Crackdown on Chuseok Seasonal Food Products... 34 Cases of Illegal Activities Including Origin Labeling Violations Detected

Incheon City special investigators are cracking down on businesses violating origin labeling regulations for seafood gift products at food material marts. [Provided by Incheon City]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City's Special Judicial Police announced on the 7th that they uncovered 34 illegal activities during a special crackdown on seasonal food products ahead of Chuseok.

The special judicial police conducted inspections for four weeks starting from the 16th of last month, targeting wholesale markets, fish markets, traditional markets, seasonal food manufacturing and sales businesses, and agricultural, livestock, and marine product sales outlets, in cooperation with the Fisheries Technology Support Center and district offices.

The crackdown revealed 34 illegal activities including violations of origin labeling, sales of illegally caught fishery products, poor hygiene management, and violations of livestock product storage methods.

Among the major cases, Company A falsely labeled Chinese sea bass as domestic and sold it, while Company B was caught selling illegally caught juvenile blue crabs at a mart.

Company C stored Korean beef that was three months past its expiration date for sale, and Company D was selling domestic Korean beef jerky, but tests confirmed it was not Korean beef.

Food manufacturing and processing Company E was found to have poor hygiene conditions such as cobwebs on the ceiling and rodent droppings inside the workplace, and Company F did not prepare work logs or raw material transaction documents while producing red ginseng products.

The special judicial police collected pork and Korean beef jerky gift sets, which are popular during the holidays, both online and offline. Pork was self-tested using an origin verification kit, and Korean beef jerky was sent to the Incheon City Health and Environment Research Institute for Korean beef confirmation tests.

Additionally, 12 cases involving false origin labeling were referred to the prosecution after investigation, and the remaining violations will be subject to administrative actions requested from the respective district offices.

An Chaemyung, head of Incheon City's Special Judicial Police, stated, "To support citizens facing double hardships due to the 8.4% increase in food prices for agricultural, livestock, and marine products (as of last month) and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, we will strengthen the provision of safe food and monitoring of origin labeling." He urged, "Please be sure to check the origin and report any suspected illegal food activities to the relevant authorities."

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