Gyeonggi Province Special Investigation Unit Uncovers 57 Illegal Seafood Handling Businesses

[Suwon Ilbo=Park Nohun Reporter] Seafood restaurants handling Japanese sea bream, scallops, and skate falsely labeled as domestically sourced have been uncovered in Gyeonggi Province.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Investigation Unit announced on the 12th that it investigated 480 imported seafood handling restaurants and distribution, sales, and processing businesses in the province from May 24 to June 25, uncovering illegal activities such as false origin labeling at 57 businesses.

The 57 businesses showed 85 violation cases involving sea bream and other species, with 47 cases from Japan, 37 from China, and 1 from Russia by country of origin.

Gyeonggi Province cited reasons for frequent false domestic labeling of Japanese and Chinese seafood as including expanded consumer avoidance of Japanese products due to Japan's radioactive contaminated water discharge, lower prices of Japanese and Chinese seafood compared to domestic products, and sellers' negligence in origin management.

Major cases include a restaurant 'G' in Uijeongbu City, which promoted "If this is not Heuksan Island skate, we will not take your money" through interior and exterior signage and menus. However, investigation by the Gyeonggi Province Special Investigation Unit revealed that the restaurant had purchased and prepared and sold over 5,500kg (approximately 115kg monthly average) of Japanese refrigerated skate at lower unit prices for approximately four years from June 2017.

A restaurant 'N' in Yangpyeong County falsely labeled Japanese sea bream and Chinese black seabream as domestic origin over 51 times (approximately 4 million won) from January through recently.

A restaurant 'D' in Anyang City purchased 97.2kg of Japanese sea bream and 6.9kg of Chinese black seabream from May through recently, storing and displaying them in an aquarium. It was caught falsely labeling Japanese sea bream as domestic or Japanese on the origin marking board and Chinese black seabream as domestic origin when selling.

Under the Origin Labeling Act, false origin labeling is punishable by imprisonment of up to 7 years or a fine of up to 100 million won.

The province ordered immediate corrections for restaurants caught with false origin labeling and plans to send cases to the prosecution through additional investigation.

Additionally, nine businesses separately identified for failure to display origin were reported to their respective municipalities and counties for administrative fines.

Seafood origin labeling requirements for restaurants apply to 15 fish species including sea bream and octopus, and all species must be labeled when kept and displayed alive in aquariums.

Seafood distribution, processing, and retail businesses must also label the origin of all seafood and processed seafood products.

Meanwhile, given significant public concerns regarding Japan's nuclear power plant radioactive contaminated water, the province conducted radioacitivity testing on 32 randomly sampled Japanese seafood cases through the Gyeonggi Province Health and Environment Research Institute during this investigation.

The results showed all 32 cases met safety standards.

Yoon Taewan, head of the Gyeonggi Province Special Investigation Unit, stated, "False origin labeling must be eliminated to protect consumer choice and establish fair distribution order," and added, "We will maintain continued focus to ensure Gyeonggi Province residents can purchase seafood with confidence."