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Two officials from the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service stormed into the Guwol branch of hypermarket chain Homever in Incheon on Sunday, acting on a tip that the retailer was selling U.S. beef marked as something else. The label of seasoned beef products on display at the store read "Australian", but pressed by the inspectors, clerks admitted that it was in fact American.
The Homever deception has shocked Korean consumers amid the public uproar over the safety of U.S. beef. As the deceit was learned only through a tip-off, people are worried that mislabeled U.S. beef might still be sold elsewhere. Even if the ongoing additional beef talks strike a deal and only beef from U.S. cattle younger than 30 months is imported, Korean consumers may likely avoid American beef altogether for some time. This raises concerns that restaurants and meat sellers might distort their beef's true country of origin.
The inspectors found 54 kg of packaged U.S. beef in Homever's frozen warehouse, confirmed as meat from U.S. cattle less than 30 months old that arrived at Busan port on Sept. 28, 2007 and hit the market four days later. The meat was distributed two days before Oct. 4 when inspections were halted on U.S. beef imports after backbone chips were discovered. Its expiry date was July 21, less than a month away. A sales clerk reportedly said that what they did was "inevitable" as U.S. beef had not been selling at all since May and the expiry date was fast approaching.
Homever blamed the incident on the beef seller. "Company 'S' broke our agreement, made the seasoned beef products at night and falsified the country of origin," a Homever official said. The National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service is investigating whether the hypermarket chain knew about the deception. The Agricultural Products Quality Control Act calls for up to seven years in prison or a W100 million (US$1=W1,024) fine for violators of country of origin regulations.
Amid the high public aversion to U.S. beef, the farm products service earlier this month conducted a clampdown on meat selling regulations. For two weeks, 1,300 officials inspected 1,819 meat shops, 4.5 percent of the total 40,000 nationwide. Fifteen sellers including Homever had falsified their meat's country of origin and ten did not label origin at all. Calls are growing for strengthened penalties on not only individual meat sellers but also the outlets that lease space to them. "People rely on the department store or outlet brand when making purchases but the stores are quick to blame the small partner firms in the event of such incidents," said Consumers Korea secretary-general Kim Ja-hye, and urged tighter regulation.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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