Special Price Crackdown Ahead of Lunar New Year

Osan City announced on the 10th that it will conduct a special crackdown from the 17th to the 31st in partnership with the public and private sectors to ensure that citizens have access to safe and reliable holiday provisions ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations. The operation will target businesses manufacturing or selling agricultural, aquatic, and livestock products as well as processed foods.

The crackdown will be conducted jointly with civil servants and consumer monitors to ensure more transparent and fair inspections.

Inspectors will visit major retailers, butcher shops, and traditional markets where holiday provisions have high distribution volumes to identify habitual and sophisticated violations, conducting inspections and collecting samples.

Key inspection items include gift agricultural products such as fruit and galbi sets, aquatic products including croaker, corvina, and anchovies, as well as beef, chestnuts, jujubes, rice cakes, mushrooms, brown croaker, and pollack.

Osan City will focus inspections on unlicensed and unreported sales of distributed and ready-made foods, expiration date tampering or alteration, violations of business operator compliance requirements, misrepresentation of imported agricultural products as domestic, and false country-of-origin labeling.

Through the special crackdown for Lunar New Year, Osan City plans to take administrative action and impose fines against businesses manufacturing, processing, or distributing defective or substandard foods, and to file charges against those who falsely label country of origin.

A city official stated, "Activation of social monitoring functions is required for safe distribution of Lunar New Year provisions," and added, "When selling or purchasing holiday provisions and gifts, please ensure they are legally manufactured and distributed, and carefully verify that product labeling information is accurate."