Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police to Investigate Delivery Food Outlets for Illegal Practices Including Expired Products and Origin Fraud

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province will conduct an intensive investigation into illegal practices including hygiene management conditions at delivery food specialty outlets and violations of agricultural, livestock, and seafood product origin labeling from January 28 to February 9.

According to online shopping trend data released by Statistics Korea last year, the delivery food market has grown rapidly from 2.7 trillion won in 2017 to 9.7 trillion won in 2019.

The province explained that it planned this wide-area investigation as a measure to strengthen food safety management in response to increased demand for delivery food due to prolonged COVID-19.

The investigation targets approximately 600 businesses registered on delivery apps that are judged to have high delivery proportions through methods such as internet street view searches.

Key investigation areas include ▲violations of cold and frozen storage standards for raw materials ▲storage of expired ingredients for cooking and sales purposes ▲false or fraudulent origin labeling.

According to the Food Sanitation Act, violating cold and frozen storage standards for food can result in imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to 50 million won.

Using expired products in cooking or storing them without a "disposal or educational use only" label can result in imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to 30 million won.

Additionally, falsely or fraudulently labeling imported products as domestically produced can result in imprisonment for up to seven years or a fine of up to 100 million won according to the Origin Labeling Act.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police has a policy to block the distribution and sale of harmful food at the source by not only seizing the relevant products when detecting illegal practices that pose food safety concerns, but also conducting follow-up investigations into related manufacturers.

In-chik Kwon, head of Gyeonggi Province's Special Judicial Police, said "We planned this investigation to ensure the safety of delivery food commonly used by residents amid ongoing COVID-19 quarantine measures through the Lunar New Year holiday," and added "We will conduct thorough investigations into illegal practices so that residents can enjoy delivery food without worry."