Pre-Cooking Weight Labels Vary Widely... "Chicken Weight Labeling System" Falls Short of Expectations

[Anchor]

We previously reported that the government introduced the chicken weight labeling system, but because it requires displaying the weight of raw chicken before cooking rather than the cooked weight, it offers little help to consumers. It has now been revealed that even these pre-cooking weight labels vary wildly from brand to brand.

Reporter Jo Yoon-ha investigates.

[Reporter]

We checked the menus of all top 10 franchise chicken brands subject to the chicken weight labeling system.

Even for boneless chicken, some brands display the weight while others do not.

For brand A, 14 out of 15 boneless chicken menus failed to display the weight.

Last year, Kyochon Chicken kept prices the same while reducing the amount of boneless chicken, prompting the introduction of the chicken weight labeling system to prevent this. However, consumers still have no way of knowing the actual amount of boneless chicken sold by certain brands.

When we asked brand A why it does not display the weight, the company replied that it received guidance from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stating that its boneless chicken is not subject to the weight labeling requirement.

How does it differ from the boneless chicken of other brands?

Looking at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's manual, it states that "chicken nuggets or colpop (popcorn chicken) can be excluded from weight labeling."

These are processed meats supplied to stores from headquarters factories with the batter already applied.

Boneless chicken is omitted from this exception.

However, brand A argues that because its boneless chicken is coated with batter at the headquarters factory rather than in the store, it falls under the weight labeling exception just like colpop.

An exception rule intended to apply restrictively to side menus like colpop is now being applied even to primary menu items like boneless chicken.

From a consumer's perspective, there is no way to know whether the batter on boneless chicken was applied at the headquarters factory or at the store.

Because consumers can check the weight of some boneless chicken while others cannot, despite eating the exact same dish, critics call it a "half-baked weight labeling system."

[Interview: Lee Jung-soo / Secretary-General, Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations: Whether it is omitted intentionally or by mistake, consumers have no way of knowing, so providing the weight of the final product received by the consumer is the best approach....]

As our reporting began, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated, "As this is a system intended for consumers' right to know, we have guided brand A to display the weight for boneless chicken as well."

(Video Editing: Kim Jong-tae, Design: Seo Seung-hyun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.