Department stores butchered online for fatty meat

Consumers are taking to online communities to complain about disproportionate meat cuts at department stores.

A user criticized the excessive amount of fat on the samgyeopsal, or pork belly, he bought at a department store in Namdong District, Incheon, in a post uploaded to the online community site Bobaedream on Sunday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Department stores, thought to adhere to stricter quality regulations to justify heftier price tags, are the latest to come under fire over excessively fatty samgyeopsal, or pork belly.

Layers of fat give samgyeopsal its distinct cut, flavor and texture, but consumers say retailers are going too far with their cuts that have disproportionally large amounts of fat compared to meat. One disgruntled consumer criticized the quality of samgyeopsal sold at a department store in a now-deleted post titled “Problematic fatty samgyeopsal is sold at department stores too” uploaded to the online community site Bobaedream on Sunday.

The user said he bought pork and beef at a department store in Namdong District, Incheon, for his dinner on Saturday.

“I didn’t look [at the cuts] too carefully because I thought department stores would be strict with the quality since they are expensive […] but there is no meat,” the user said.

“The [fatty] meat issue is currently going viral after being sold on Jeju Island and through online sellers; I didn’t think it would happen to me but it did,” he added.

A Bobaedream user said the pork belly he bought at a department store had disproportionate amounts of fat compared to meat. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The user uploaded photos of the pork belly that show its weight, price and cut. He had bought 302 grams (10.7 ounces) of pork for 3,390 won ($2.48) per 100 grams, amounting to 10,240 won in total. Of the five cuts in the photo, two mostly contain fat.

A similar case went viral last month after a customer complained about paying almost 150,000 won for pork that primarily consisted of fat in a restaurant in Jeju.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs re-issued its manual on samgyeopsal outlining the appropriate amount of fat in each slice in January after criticism of the fatty samgyeopsal handed out as donation favors by Michuhol District, Incheon, in December went viral.

The manual was created in June 2023 after some retailers faced backlash for selling pork belly primarily consisting of fat for sale events, but it is not legally binding.

A slice of samgyeopsal should have less than 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) of fat while ogyeopsal, which includes the skin, should have less than 1.5 centimeters of fat, according to the manual.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]