Illegal and Unfair Advertising of 'Children's Height Growth' Persists... 226 Cases Detected by MFDS

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on the 16th that it conducted a focused inspection on online posts advertising and selling food products with claims such as 'children's height growth' and detected 226 violations. For the detected posts, access was blocked through the Korea Communications Standards Commission, and administrative actions were requested from the relevant authorities.

Advertisements that mislead or confuse consumers by implying products are health functional foods, although they are not, as identified by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. [Photo by Ministry of Food and Drug Safety]

The main violations included ▲advertisements causing misunderstanding or confusion by presenting general foods as health functional foods (161 cases, 71.2%) ▲false or exaggerated advertisements (27 cases, 11.9%) ▲advertisements claiming efficacy for disease prevention or treatment (20 cases, 8.9%), among others.

The detected advertisements promoted general foods as 'height growth supplements' or used expressions like 'children's height increase' for nutritional supplements such as calcium health functional foods, exceeding the functional claims allowed for those nutrients, leading to enforcement actions. Some products were also caught for misleading consumers by using purchase reviews or personal experiences.

An official from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated, "To prevent consumer harm caused by unfair advertisements, we will continue to inspect illegal activities targeting products of high public interest."

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