Incheon City Collects and Inspects 1,000 Food Samples Monthly, Including High-Consumption and Online Sales Items

Incheon City announced on the 13th that it plans to collect and inspect more than 1,000 food products distributed and sold in the market every month. The city intends to conduct inspections focusing on items of high consumer interest to preemptively block non-compliant foods at each stage of distribution and sales.

For overseas direct purchase diet foods, which have a high purchase frequency through domestic and international online shopping, the inspection will focus on the presence of illicit substances (psychotropic drugs). For health powder products (such as Saessakbori and Yeoju) distributed and sold on online shopping malls, the inspection will concentrate on whether metallic foreign substances exceeding permissible levels, which may enter during the manufacturing and grinding process, are present.

Additionally, high-caffeine drinks and guarana extract powders, which adolescents reportedly consume during exam periods for their stimulating effects, will be collected and tested to prevent exposure to harmful substances.

By category, a total of about 12,000 samples will be collected and inspected, including 6,198 safety inspections of processed foods, 132 surveys on contamination by harmful substances by food type, 100 microbial contamination surveys, 740 radiation safety inspections, 4,400 agricultural product safety inspections, and 430 seafood safety inspections. After inspection, products deemed non-compliant will be administratively sanctioned and recalled or disposed of according to relevant laws.

Incheon City Hall

Over the past year, Incheon City collected and inspected 13,954 distributed food products and urgently recalled 29 non-compliant items. In particular, radiation inspections were conducted on 1,530 seafood products distributed following the discharge of contaminated water from Japan, all of which were judged 'compliant.' Additionally, 259 online-sold products such as ready-to-cook sets were inspected, and sales of six non-compliant products were suspended.

An official from Incheon City stated, "We will do our best to prevent food accidents by strengthening safety management through focused collection and inspection of online-sold foods, consumer-preferred foods, and foods of social concern that pose potential risks."

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