Police crack down on raw fish restaurants and distributors that sold Japanese imports disguised as domestic products

Marine products in the fish tank of a marine-product distributor in Incheon. Courtesy of the Incheon Metropolitan Government

Public concern of marine products has been growing since Japan began discharging the contaminated water from the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on August 24, and the Incheon Special Judicial Police Force cracked down on a number of raw fish restaurants and marine-product distributors that failed to indicate the origin of products imported from Japan or disguised the Japanese imports as domestic products.

On September 6, the Special Judicial Police Force of Incheon announced that they caught ten stores that violated laws on labeling the origin of agricultural and marine products. They also caught an unlicensed shrimp farm.

The special police force, jointly with the National Fishery Products Quality Management Service and local district (gun, gu) governments, conducted a special inspection of over 800 stores selling raw fish and other marine products and local fish markets from August 14 until September 1.

As a result of the crackdown, authorities caught four raw fish restaurants and marine-product distributors that disguised imports as domestic products, six distributors that did not indicate the origin of their products, and one whiteleg shrimp farm operating without a license.

Three of the raw fish restaurants and stores selling marine products stored live scallops and red seabream imported from Japan in their fish tanks, but wrote them down as domestic products in the signs indicating their origin. They sold the imports disguised as domestic products. One buffet restaurant selling sushi also labeled eels from Peru as domestic eels and indicated countries different from the origin of imported marine products, such as the three-spotted swimming crab and the opah.

Six marine-product distributors failed to indicate the origin of live red seabream from Japan or sold marine products imported from countries other than Japan without disclosing their origins on purpose. When stores indicate a false origin of agricultural and marine products, the storeowners can be subject to punishment of up to seven years in prison or a fine of up to 100 million won.

Ahn Chae-myung, director of the Incheon Special Judicial Police Force said,” As citizens worry more about marine products from Japan, we will continue to strictly crack down on any violations concerning the origin of the products to protect the consumers’ right to know and to establish a safe order in the distribution of marine products.”