Minister Chung Seung of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety delivers his commemorative speech 

at a ceremony to mark Food Safety Day on May 14. (Photo:MFDS)

Starting late this year, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) makes it obligatory to implement a traceability system for food imports on a gradual basis to reinforce safety management of imported foods so as to immediately retrieve and destroy imports put on the market when they are discovered to be unsafe.  

Kang Bong-han, director general of the Food Safety Policy Bureau at the MFDS, revealed this and other steps to reinforce the safety of imported foods as well as his ministry’s policies in his recent written interview with NewsWorld. The following are excerpts of the interview. 

Question: Will tell our readers about the significance of celebrating Food Safety Day on May 14, anniversary events, and corporate award winners?

A: Food Safety Day has been observed on May 14 every year since 2002 not only to publicize the importance of food safety by creating a healthy dietary life and safe food environment through enhanced public consensus and awareness toward food safety, but also to praise food makers, organizations, and those in industry and other walks of life, including government officials in charge of food safety, who have done meritorious services to promote food safety. 

In particular, a ceremony to mark the 13th anniversary of Food Safety Day took place on May 14 to uproot illegal and substandard foods under the catchphrase, “Making Foods Safe All Year Around and a Healthy Future,” and to lay a foundation for becoming a global food safety powerhouse. Among the anniversary events held across the nation were academic seminars on major policies on food safety, related walkathons, public contests, children’s musical performances, and other diverse events connected with May’s cultural events. 

The Order of Industrial Service, Bronze Tower, went to Dongsuh Food Chairman Kim Sang-hun in recognition of his contribution to the development of the Korean food industry and the national economy by introducing instant coffee for the first time in Korea and substituting for imports. 

Suheung Capsule Vice President Park Geun-duk was honored with the Industrial Service Medal for her roles in institutional reform and improving the quality of products and technology ranging from the introduction of health supplement foods in Korea to applications, thus invigorating the health supplement industry in Korea and abroad and contributing to the improvement of public health. 

Among the six Prime Minister’s Prize winners were Lotte R&D Center President Yea Myeong-jae who was recognized for improving dietary life by lowering sodium and managing harmful substances; standardizing global safety management through the operation of food safety systems and the establishment of a global safety center; and eco-friendly packing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Kim Kyung-min, managing director of Yonsei University Milk, and Yoon Jong-sil, general manager in charge of quality management at Nongshim’s Gumi Plant each received the Minister of Food and Drug Safety Prize. Kim has been credited with his roles in introducing the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system in the production of milk and contributing to production of safe products, while Yoon has been praised for her contribution to supplying safe products to consumers by applying the HACCP system. 

Kang Bong-han, director general of the Food Safety Policy 

Bureau at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). (Photo:MFDS)

Q: What’s the implication between food safety and the food industry for helping to realize the creative economy?

A: Securing the safety of foods is an imperative for the development of the food industry. In the past, the food industry relied on quantitative growth rather than food safety. Things have now changed: Much concern over health, caused by economic affluence, has made quality a priority over quantity, so it cannot be emphasized enough that securing food safety is indispensable to the development of the food industry.  

There were cases in which companies had hard times such as a decline in sales, caused by consumers shunning their products as was demonstrated when parasites were found in cabbage kimchi, the head of a rat was discovered in saewookkang, benzopyrene was added to ramyeon soup. 

The government and companies have to devote themselves to securing food safety in order to promote the development of the food industry. 

Q: Will you elaborate on steps to ramp up the safety of foods put on sale online?

A: Recognizing the need to cope with online transactions of foods doctored with harmful substances and illegal drugs, emerging as the loophole for food safety, our ministry is taking steps such as shutting down websites to prevent the selling of products found to contain harmful substances. We’re also deleting articles and shutting down blogs, cafes, and websites in which products found to falsify or exaggerate the efficacy of preventing and treating diseases are put on sale. 

A revision requiring purveyors to report imports so as to prevent the selling of products not proved to be safe goes into effect starting next January. 

Q:  Will you introduce steps to strengthen the rapid notification and retrieval of foods found to be harmful to human consumption?

A: MFDS implements a system to immediately report and share among local governments and related government authorities information about “illegal and substandard” foods found not to meet safety standards after testing or inspection.

We’re expanding a project to install a system to block the selling of harmful foods to consumers by sending information listed on the rapid notification system of illegal and substandard products online to sales outlets across the nation.

A pilot program to block the selling of harmful foods to consumers began at Lotte Mart in 2009. The program has been expanded to cover 40,000 outlets in major department stores and large-scale marketplaces as of 2013. An additional 30,000 small- and medium-sized marketing outlets will be outfitted with the system by 2017 so as to create an environment in which consumers buy foods without misgivings or worries. 

Q: Will you introduce the group of food makers posting more than 1 trillion won in sales?

A: Joining in the club are CJ Cheiljedang, Nongshim, Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co., and Lotte Confectionery. 

Q:  Will you explain steps to beef up the safety of health functional foods?

A: Our ministry plans to introduce a system to recover illegally amassed wealth and a minimum prison term system so as to eradicate the production of health functional foods in an intentional and malicious manner.

Those found to produce or sell harmful health functional foods as well to mistake or confuse them as pharmaceuticals by indicating or advertising the efficacy and effectuation of disease prevention and treatment would be levied with penalties equivalent to sales amounts to redeem the illegally amassed profits. 

Violators would be sentenced to imprisonment without forced labor or severer. Repeat violators would be sentenced to one or more years, but less than 10 years in prison, plus fines up to 10 times as much as sales amounts.

We plan to make it obligatory for health functional food makers to have a traceablity system in place on a gradual basis as well as to expand the coverage of the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) so as to enhance the quality of health functional foods. 

Q:  Will you touch on measures to strengthen the surveillance of imported foods?

A: Our ministry is striving to explore diverse ways to meet a rising demand for managing the safety of imported foods, which are on the surge every year in the wake of the effectuation of FTAs. The nation saw the importation of foods surging to 352,968 cases in 2003, a 91.5 percent jump over a year earlier, and swelling to 13.6 million tons, a 22.8 percent increase on a volume basis. 

First of all, our ministry seeks to enact the special act on safety management of imported foods, which would make it mandatory for some 34,000 foreign food makers to register their plants as part of efforts to reinforce safety management of imported foods. We plan to ramp up field inspections of foreign food exporters considered to maintain lower food quality standards. 

MFDS plans to introduce a prior prediction testing system against imported foods designed to inspect a selection of imports by analyzing unqualified records and information about harmful foods in Korea and abroad to promote the circulation of safe imports beginning from the customs clearance stage. Starting later this year, a traceability system against food imports will be mandatory on a gradual basis so as to immediately retrieve and destroy imports put on the market in the case of the revelation of unsafe foods. 

Officials from the MFDS will also be dispatched to major food exporters, including Japan, to look into safety trends of food imports in advance.