Zhezhu Jin
The South Korean government plans to expand and strengthen its country of origin labeling system for food starting Friday, June 28. It will increase the number of food items subject for labeling at restaurants. As for processed food, labeling will be required for chili powder used in Kimchi made with Napa cabbage, a national dish of South Korea. Stricter standards will be introduced for beef which can be labeled as domestically produced. The measures are aimed at ensuring consumers’ rights to be informed of the source of food products, as well as making it easier for them to choose domestic products amid increasing liberalization of imports of agricultural products under the free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea.
Currently, restaurants in South Korea are required to indicate country of origin for 12 food products including beef, pork and rice, but 4 items including mackerel pikes and seasoned cod roe are added.
As for chili powder used in Napa cabbage Kimchi, if it is of mixed origin, the new rule requires all the countries of origin to be listed in decreasing order of mixture ratio. This is because there are increasing cases where red pepper is imported from China and processed to chili powder in South Korea. The current regulations already require country of origin labeling for Napa cabbages, the main ingredient.
Concerning labeling for beef, beef derived from imported cattle cannot be labeled as domestically produced unless it is processed from the cattle raised domestically for at least six months after being imported. The beef products must also carry the name of the country where the imported cattle was born. In the preliminary negotiations with the U. S. for a free trade agreement, South Korea agreed to relax import restrictions for U.S. beef, which was introduced after the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the U.S. This decision apparently led South Korea to introduce stricter rules for indicating beef products as domestically produced.
As for domestically processed food, in South Korea, 16 new items will become subject to country of origin labeling requirement in restaurants, in addition to the current list of 258 items. In Japan, the government requires country of origin labeling for 22 processed food groups. Restaurants in Japan are not obligated to display country of origin, but are only encouraged to do so by a guideline of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry. Food group means a group of similar food items. If the processed food items subject to country of origin labeling in South Korea is sorted according to the food groups like in Japan, it is said that they can be classified into 39 food groups.
Expanding labeling requirements for ingredients and country of origin was discussed in Japan when it was working on unifying various regulations concerning food labeling into a bill, but the idea was shelved as producers and retailers were reluctant.
Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union, an organization of consumers in Japan, highly evaluates South Korea’s move to revise country of origin labeling requirements. “Japan is far behind South Korea in this field, as restaurants are exempted from the requirement rules for example. South Korea will become a role model for Japan,” the spokesman said.
(May 1, 2013)