▲ Ministry of Food and Drug Safety
A large number of online advertisements promoting ordinary food products as health supplements or medicinal products have been caught in a crackdown.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that it conducted a joint inspection with local governments for two days starting May 14. As a result, 225 online posts violating the Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods were identified, and the ministry has requested that these posts be blocked and that administrative measures be taken.
According to the findings, the most common violation involved 104 cases where ordinary food products were advertised using terms like "nutritional supplement" or "immune booster," misleading consumers into believing they were health functional foods.
This accounts for 46.2 percent of the total number of violations.
Health functional foods are products manufactured using ingredients or components with recognized functional benefits for the human body, and they are required to display relevant statements or official certification marks on their packaging.
Following this, 84 cases—or 37.3 percent of the total—involved advertisements that misled consumers into believing ordinary food products could treat or prevent diseases. Additionally, 19 cases, accounting for 8.5 percent, involved deceptive advertising that utilized fake customer reviews or testimonials.
Furthermore, 10 cases (4.4 percent) involved advertisements that misled consumers into perceiving food as medicine, while 8 cases (3.6 percent) involved exaggerating the functions, effects, or efficacy of food on bodily tissues.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.