South Korea Consults on Standard for Prohibited Content in Food Labels and Advertisements

South Korea formulated a new standard to specify prohibited food labeling and advertising content and includes specification on confusing labeling terminology or words which exaggerate efficacy/function.

On April 19, 2019, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of South Korea released notification No.2019-209^[1], consulting on the draft version of Standard for Illicit Content in Food Labels and Ads.

The draft is applicable to food, food additives, food contact apparatus, containers or packages, health functional foods and livestock products. Several scenarios are used to detail new requirements:

Scenario 1: labels or ads that could mislead consumers to consider a food as a pharmaceutical product.
Scenario 2: labels or ads that could mislead consumers that an ordinary foods is a health functional food.
Situation 3: fraudulent labels or ads.

When a product claims it does not contain/use a certain ingredient, and that ingredient is:

a) is prohibited according to regulations
b) is an ambiguous name for a kind of ingredients that is harmful to health
c) exists in the product itself or is produced during the manufacturing process

When it highlights a certain ingredient that only exists in small amount (or even zero)
When saccharide (monosaccharide and disaccharide) is added to the product, but the label or ads indicate “without (adding) sugar”
When the name of food additive in the labels or ads is not in accordance with that in Food Additive Code
When it stresses that the product complies with corresponding regulations, but the regulation is already a mandatory requirement for all products
When a product bears a false labeling claim purporting to be “natural/nature”, “100%”, or “non-GMO”
When it uses words or expressions without exact definition or scientific proof to convince consumers that a product is better than others
Other fraudulent labels or ads

Scenario 4: labels and ads that defame competitors

Scenario 5: labels and ads that have negative impact on society.

Deadline for comments is May 10. If you would like to submit feedback on the standard, please contact ChemLinked and we would be gladly submit your comments to the Korean competent authority.