The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (the “MFDS”) has recently announced its key plans for 2021.  Below is a summary of its major food-related initiatives. 
 

• Review of Nutritional Contents for Imported Children’s Favorite Foods, Etc.* 

MFDS plans to review the nutritional contents (e.g., calories, sugars, protein, fat, sodium and cholesterol) of imported children’s favorite foods, etc. twice a year and disclose the findings through its website and press releases.  For your reference, the permitted tolerance range for labeled nutritional values under the Food Labeling Standards is 80-120%, and a related violation may be punishable by a fine of up to KRW 5 million. 
 

* Children’s favorite foods, etc. – confectionaries, breads, chocolate, carbonated beverages, cheese, powdered milk, etc. 
 

• Strengthened Safety Control of Harmful Foods Purchased Directly from Overseas 

  • Scope of inspection and number of purchase-based inspections to be expanded for foods purchased directly from overseas
    Starting this year, MFDS plans to expand the scope of its inspection—currently limited to foods making certain functional claims (e.g., foods for weight loss or for enhancing sexual functions)—to the category of powdered milk for infants and health functional foods. 

  • Online purchasing agents to be held responsible for damages sustained by consumers
    While consumer damages associated with overseas direct purchase have persisted over the years, current regulations do not contain any specific provisions that hold food purchasing agents responsible for selling harmful foods.  In the second half of this year, MFDS plans to amend the Special Act on Imported Food Safety Control (the “Act”) and its Enforcement Rules in order to establish clear liability for food purchasing agents, by imposing the sanction of business license revocation and requiring mandatory training aimed at prevention of consumer damages when it comes to food purchasing agents with three or more safety-related violations.  

  • MFDS to push for applying Korean law on foreign food sellers conducting business on domestic platforms
    Unlike domestic food purchasing agents, foreign business entities that engage in the business of selling foods on large domestic platforms (“foreign food sellers”) are currently not regulated by any domestic law.  MFDS plans to amend the Act in the second half of this year, requiring foreign food sellers to file their information with MFDS in advance and, for sellers found to be in violation for selling harmful foods, suspending them from conducting business on domestic platforms for a certain period of time. 

• Introduction of the “Use-by-Date” Labeling System 

MFDS announced its plan to introduce around June of this year the system of labeling “use-by-date” (i.e., the date by which the labeled food product can be consumed safely, also referred to as “expiration date”) instead of “sell-by-date” (i.e., the date by which the labeled food product is allowed to be sold) on food products.  
 

• Expansion of the Scope of Mandatory Nutrition Information Labeling 

Under the current regulations, 115 types of foods, including confectionaries, chocolate, noodles, beverages and cereals, are subject to the mandatory nutrition information labeling requirement.  Starting from January 1, 2022, the scope will be expanded to also include processed foods (i) that contain high levels of sugar or sodium or (ii) that are consumed frequently and in large quantities. 
 

* Foods Being Newly Subject to the Mandatory Nutrition Information Labeling Requirement:
Rice Cakes, Processed Saccharide Products, Soybean Curds, Muk (Starch Jellies), Vegetable Cream, Liquid Tea, Fermented Vinegar, Sauces, Curries, Spice Preparation, Kimchi Products, Pickled Food Products, Boiled Foods, Starch Products, Wheat Flour Products, Processed Peanut or Nut Products, Other Processed Agricultural Products, Bacons, Dry Stored Meats, Seasoned Meat, Ground Meat Product, Meat Extract Product, Processed Meat Containing Product, Egg Products, Goat Milk, Fish Flesh, Surimi, Semi-Finished Fish Meat Product, Fish Paste, Other Processed Fish Meat Products, Salted and Fermented Seafood Products, Dried Fish/Shellfish Fillet Products, Seasoned Laver, and Other Processed Fishery Products 

As the requirement will be implemented in phases over the period of 2022 to 2026 on the basis of the 2019 sales amount for each type of foods listed above, it is highly recommended that relevant industries start preparing for this change in advance.  
 

• Gradual Strengthening of GMO Labeling Requirement 

MFDS announced that, based on the consensus derived by the Working Council for Strengthening GMO Labeling, it plans to come up with ways to gradually strengthen GMO labeling and phase in a “complete GMO labeling system” which would require GMO labeling on foods that contain GMO raw ingredients, regardless of whether any traces of genetically modified DNA or protein remain in final products.  

MFDS has yet to announce specific details on its plan to gradually strengthen GMO labeling. 

[Korean version]