Baek Jong-won’s The Born Korea receives corrective action order amid false advertising controversy over 'natural shrimp'

The Born Korea, led by representative Baek Jong-won, has received a corrective action order from the Gangnam District Office regarding allegations of false advertising.

On the 28th, the Gangnam District Office announced that they had notified The Born Korea of a corrective action order due to violations of the Food Labeling and Advertising Act.

The Gangnam District Office had requested The Born Korea to submit a written opinion by the 24th, but did not receive any substantial response. Consequently, the office assumes that The Born Korea will accept the corrective action order and plans to implement corrective measures within this week.

The controversy began when a user of an online community on the 26th of last month posted that the description of 'natural shrimp' in The Born Korea's ‘Deopjuk’ advertisement was false, and subsequently submitted a criminal complaint request to the Gangnam District Office via the National Sinmungo service.

Discrepancies in origin labeling and advertisement cause consumer confusion

In reality, the detailed page of The Born Korea's 'Deopjuk' product indicated 'domestically produced' or 'natural shrimp', but it was confirmed that the raw material name listed was 'shrimp (Vietnam)'.

Before the complaint was filed, The Born Korea had revised the wording to 'special broth made with domestically produced kelp' and 'plump shrimp, the finishing touch of Deopjuk topping'.

Meanwhile, The Born Korea was recently reported for the promotional wording regarding Bbaekdabang's 'chewy sweet potato bread'.

The phrase 'Our agricultural products, our Bbaekdabang' was used for social media promotion, but allegations arose that foreign ingredients were used in the product, leading to a non-arrest investigation by the Gangnam Police Station on the 21st of last month.

Previously, there were allegations that some products, such as 'Baek Jong-won’s Baekseok Doenjang' and 'Hanshin Pocha's stir-fried octopus', had incorrectly labeled the origin of ingredients as domestically produced on online malls, resulting in a corrective order from the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service.

In response, representative Baek Jong-won stated, "We will thoroughly inspect all product descriptions, including origin labeling issues, and introduce a permanent monitoring system composed of external experts."

Image source: Baek Jong-won, representative of The Born Korea / News1, The Born Korea / News1