A supermarket in Paris has drawn criticism after selling kimchi fried rice labeled as "Chinese food."
Seo Kyoung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women's University, said on the 1st that he confirmed the sales conditions at a supermarket in central Paris after receiving a tip from a Korean traveler. Takeout kimchi fried rice under the brand "KUMO" was being sold there marked as "CHINESE FOOD," he said.
The product is a ready-to-eat takeout meal consisting of kimchi fried rice with bacon added.
This is not the first time kimchi or dishes containing kimchi have been misidentified in Europe as food from another Asian country.
A restaurant inside the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam previously sold a "kimchi sandwich" while describing kimchi as Japanese food, later removing the wording.
ALDI, a major German retailer, also described kimchi as "Japanese kimchi" on its website before correcting the content.
"In Europe, kimchi is still frequently mistaken for Chinese or Japanese food," Seo said. "With China continuing to claim that kimchi originated from paocai, its own traditional dish, errors like this can give ammunition to their unfounded arguments."
Seo said he plans to send a protest email to the local retailer and request a correction to the labeling in the French case as well, so that foreigners do not misunderstand Korean food culture.
