MFDS cracks down on 39 food service establishments violating Food Sanitation Act, including major hotels

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on the 28th that it conducted inspections on about 3,800 food service establishments nationwide, including kids cafes, PC rooms, animal cafes, comic cafes, screen golf centers, wedding halls, funeral halls, and large hotels, where food is directly prepared and sold, and identified 39 places violating the Food Sanitation Act.

From the 22nd to the 26th of last month, the Ministry, together with local governments, carried out inspections on facilities that prepare and sell food incidentally while operating other businesses, such as kids cafes.

The main violations included ▲storage of expired products (7 places) ▲violation of standards and specifications (2 places) ▲violation of facility standards (1 place) ▲failure to report changes in business area (1 place) ▲failure to conduct health examinations (24 places) ▲violation of hygienic handling standards (4 places), among others.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

By location of violation, PC rooms accounted for the most with 21 places, followed by kids cafes (7 places), funeral halls (5 places), large hotels (3 places), animal cafes (2 places), and wedding halls (1 place). Among these, the large hotels found in violation were Seoul Chosun Palace Gangnam buffet Constance (storage of expired products), Gangwon High1 Grand Hotel buffet Grand Table (violation of standards and specifications), and Jeju CS Hotel & Resort’s CS Dining (violation of hygienic handling standards).

Along with this inspection, the Ministry collected 32 food items prepared and sold at hotels and tested them for food poisoning bacteria and other factors. One item was judged non-compliant, and administrative action will be taken against the corresponding establishment. The violator was Incheon Kyungwonjae Ambassador Hotel’s Korean restaurant Sura (positive for Staphylococcus aureus).

For the violating businesses, the relevant local governments will conduct follow-up inspections within six months after administrative actions to verify improvements. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated, "We will continue to strengthen safety management of food handling facilities vulnerable to hygiene issues to create an environment where the public can consume safe food."

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