Coffee Bean, Hollys Face Penalty for Violations

It appears that beverages at coffee chains, such as Hollys, aren’t as fresh as the outlets claim they are. / Korea Times File

By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter

Some outlets of Coffee Bean Korea and Hollys Coffee in Seoul may have their business operations suspended for as long as a month because they were found to have violated regulations.

The Korea Food & Drug Administration (KFDA) said Friday that it has investigated 70 coffee houses situated in Seoul and suppliers to them to discover 18 violators of the related regulations.

A total of five outlets of Coffee Bean Korea were caught for having failed to provide Korean-language information for some of their beverages or having not conducted a medical check for their sales staff members.

TOM N TOMS and Seven Monkeys Coffee tied for the second spot in the infamous list as three of their shops allegedly failed to abide by the laws too. Hollys Coffee followed with two cases.

``We reported all the cases to the ward offices of Seoul in charge. They will have to take punitive measures against the violators after listening to their explanations,'' KFDA official Lee Jeong-ho said.

Under the relevant laws, the outlets of Coffee Bean, Hollys, TOM N TOMS and Seven Monkeys may be forced to cease operations between 15 days and a month.

In particular, four outlets of Coffee Bean could be shut down for a month since they did not put Korean-language stickers on some of their fruit juices.

``The law stipulates that the ward office has to impose one-month trading suspensions to the Coffee Bean shops lest there are extenuating circumstances. The final decision will be made by the ward offices in the not so distant future,'' said Lee at the KFDA.

When contacted, Coffee Bean said that the potential penalty was over the top.

``We sold the fruit juice from the same supplier for the past eight years without any problems. They appear to have made a mistake this time around,'' a Coffee Bean Korea representative said.

``We carried out sample tests where we could not find problematic materials without Korean-language stickers because they are just a small fraction of all the products provided. In our view, it is too much to suspend the businesses for a full month for the errors.''

The representative said that Coffee Bean Korea plans to decide how to respond after checking the measures of the ward offices.

A Hollys outlet and two of the Seven Monkeys stores were caught using ingredients, which had passed their expiration date.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr

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