Statement

With the repeated problems of imported farm products, the consumers become more and more concerned about food materials as their daily food life is threated.

In particular, imported farm, dairy and fishery products flood the local market with its globalization. The consumers cannot escape uneasiness about their safety as some of the vendors frequently cheat the consumers by selling them as if they were locally produced.

The origin marking system for farm, dairy and fishery products is implemented at retail stores, including butchers, but it is not yet applied to restaurants at all. It is a serious issue that the origin marking system is not practiced at restaurants at all, because over 50% of meat is consumed at restaurants.

Last year, some consumer organizations, which collected and inspected Korean beef sold at department stores, large discount stores and general butchers in Seoul, ascertained some milking cow or imported beef are sold as if they were real Korean beef. In an inspection of 41 Korean restaurants in Seoul, which replied they sell genuine Korean beef only, it was revealed that 29% cheat the consumers by selling milk cow beef as if it were real Korean beef.

In an inspection from July to September this year, against 80 restaurants in Seoul, which replied they sell Korean beef only, it was revealed that 30% cheat the consumers by selling milk cow or imported beef as if it were real Korean beef.

Some restaurants cheat the consumers, because the origin marking system for Korean beef is applied to only the butchers or other retail vendors, while restaurants display prices for different beef parts. The consumers are unable to discern the beef’s origin outside of the butchers’ store.

The 10 member organization of Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations strongly requested the government since 1996 to apply the origin marking system to restaurants as well. Yet, the consumers’ rights to information access, health and safety are still neglected or infringed as the National Assembly has repeatedly failed to pass the bill.

The consumers are ‘entitled to know’ about all goods or services they purchase. However, the origin marking is not made on beef used at restaurants at all. The access to information of the consumers who more often use restaurants these days is completely neglected.

The overall consumption of dairy products has shrunk, because the consumers are full of uneasy feeling with the beef market fluctuation for mad cow disease and controversy over safety of imported food. The restaurants should secure consumer confidence by providing accurate information. The vendors who try to gain illegal profit by cheating the consumers should be eradicated from the market. They need to secure market competitiveness with correctly differentiated prices for Korean and imported beef.

The National Assembly should satisfy the consumers’ right for information access, and should also remove their uneasy sense about food, by introducing the origin marking system for beef sold at restaurants.

○ The government should establish sound business orders, and should safeguard the consumers’ rights to information, health and safety, by having restaurants correctly mark the origin for beef they sell.