Chinese Sea Cucumbers Passed Off as Domestic: 16 Seafood Sellers Caught in Incheon for Violating Country-of-Origin Labeling

Ahead of the Chuseok holiday, a large number of seafood sellers and distributors in Incheon have been caught falsely labeling Chinese sea cucumbers as domestic.

The Incheon Metropolitan City Special Judicial Police announced that they have caught 16 businesses for violating country-of-origin labeling regulations ahead of Chuseok.

The businesses cracked down on during this operation marked Chinese octopus and yellow catfish in a way that could mislead consumers into thinking they were domestic, and sold Chinese sea cucumbers with false domestic labels.

Sellers who offered seafood and dried fish without any country-of-origin labels were also caught.

The city's special judicial police plan to criminally book the businesses that falsely or deceptively labeled the origin of their products, and impose fines on those that failed to display labels altogether.

Under current laws, falsely labeling the origin of seafood or making deceptive displays that could cause confusion is punishable by up to 7 years in prison or a fine of up to 100 million won.

As seafood consumption increases ahead of Chuseok, the city's special judicial police conducted a rigorous joint inspection with the Fisheries Technology Support Center and district and county offices from September 7 to 16 to crack down on origin labeling violations.

(Photo provided by Incheon Metropolitan City, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.