48 companies may be punished! Korean health functional foods are suspected of illegal sales

According to Korean media reports, due to the nature of the online market, it is difficult to confirm information such as company authorization or licensing.

It is understood that many cases of illegal product sales have been discovered through government management , such as health functional products using inappropriate words to describe their efficacy, misleading consumers to buy them .

It is reported that the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated on the 25th that after discovering 48 illegal activities (such as the sale of products without commercial reports), it asked the competent authorities to impose administrative sanctions.

According to the survey, 30 companies sold health functional foods or commissioned processing companies to manufacture foods and then sold them under their own trademarks, while 2 companies acted as agents to purchase imported foods without filing business declarations.

In addition, 14 companies used inappropriate words in their product names , and two companies violated standards and specifications, such as using "sweet and sour" which cannot be used as food ingredients .

Under existing law, the Food Labeling and Advertisement Act, the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety prohibits the use of terms such as "Bugien," "Bugino," and "Bugino Tea" because they may confuse consumers and lead them to mistakenly buy products whose efficacy has not been verified.

Last week, Korean health products were involved in false advertising during live broadcasts, which has attracted public attention.

It is understood that the Korean Consumer Agency conducted random monitoring of 120 "live broadcasts with goods" on five live broadcast platforms in South Korea, and 30 live broadcasts were found to have published false advertisements. Among them, health foods and cosmetics accounted for more than half of the false advertisements.

Due to imperfect supervision , many platforms have been exposed to have problems with false advertising. They claim that their products have the effects of improving the body, which seriously misleads consumers. Consumers are very concerned about this.

An official from the Food and Drug Safety Administration said , “We will work with the Fair Trade Commission to encourage sellers to proactively provide detailed product information online, and we will continue to monitor illegal activities.”

South Korea

Health Food

Illegal sales