A large number of cases involving misleading advertisements for ordinary food products that displayed names or contents of illegal drug ingredients have been uncovered online.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that it inspected food products labeled with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an illegal drug ingredient, and identified a total of 60 violations, requesting that the relevant websites be blocked and administrative measures taken.

By type of violation, advertisements that misled consumers into believing the products were pharmaceuticals by displaying the drug ingredient "cannabinoid" were the most common, accounting for 38 cases.

This was followed by 11 cases of advertisements that deceived consumers through testimonials mentioning THC ingredients.

In addition, 8 cases of advertisements that could lead consumers to mistake products for health functional foods by using terms such as "sleep" or "diet," and 3 cases of advertisements that could create the perception of having disease prevention or treatment efficacy were also caught.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has ordered on-site inspections for 26 businesses that repeatedly violated regulations and plans to focus on monitoring misleading advertisement videos that utilize artificial intelligence.

(Photo: Provided by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Yonhap News)