CHANGWON — South Gyeongsang Province inspected 412 businesses handling Chuseok holiday foods and found 22 in violation of hygiene rules.
The province said on the 22nd that it conducted the inspections jointly with cities and counties over five days from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4, targeting businesses that manufacture, distribute, prepare and sell foods consumed heavily during the holiday. All 32 holiday food samples collected during the inspections met safety standards and specifications.
The main violations were failure to conduct health examinations at 11 businesses, breaches of sanitary handling standards such as unsanitary management of manufacturing and processing areas at eight businesses, failure to conduct all required self-quality inspections at two businesses, and failure to keep records of raw material transactions at one business.
Alongside the inspections, the province collected foods widely consumed during the holiday, including items for ancestral rites and gifts, and asked the South Gyeongsang Institute of Health and Environment to test them for safety. The samples included 16 prepared foods such as jeon pancakes, fried dishes and dumplings, 10 seafood items such as red sea bream and Japanese Spanish mackerel, and six processed foods such as rice cakes and jeon. All 32 samples were found to meet standards and specifications for their respective food categories.
The province will impose administrative penalties on the businesses found in violation under the Food Sanitation Act and other related laws, and will publish the results on the websites of the relevant cities and counties. It will re-inspect the businesses within six months to verify whether the violations have been corrected.
"We will continue to strengthen hygiene management so that residents can purchase and consume food with confidence, not only during holidays but at all times," said Kim Shin-ho, director general of the province's health and medical affairs bureau. "We will also ensure thorough management at each stage of manufacturing, distribution and sales to prevent food safety incidents."
