By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
There are more contaminated China-made food products on the market that haven't made news headlines like the latest shrimp snack, said the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA), the country's most representative consumer protection group, Wednesday.
``We've already had 10 reports this year regarding safety concerns over imported Chinese food products,'' said a KCA researcher, who asked for anonymity. Coffee, sesame oil and health supplements were some items that were recently reported, he said.
The latest scare came earlier this week when a rodent part was found in a bag of leading snack maker Nongshim's top-seller, Saewookkang.
The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said it suspects the ``substance'' was mixed in during the semi-finished manufacturing or packing process at a production site in Qingdao, China. The snack manufacturer pulled the product from local retailers Tuesday.
The immediate fire has been put out, but consumers show more concern over this incident because, this time, it was a locally branded and trusted product that turned out to be affected.
``Before, problematic goods were non-brand or `Made in China,' which worked as an initial warning to customers,'' said Lim Eun-kyung, team leader of the consumer protection board at the Seoul YMCA. ``But this was Nongshim. Who would've questioned that?''
An increasing number of manufacturers are producing semi-finished or finished goods out of Chinese factories to reduce costs. Aside from Nongshim, Lotte Confectionery, Orion, CJ and Crown also run operations in China.
An official of the KFDA said although it is globally understood that there are risks with certain Chinese products, it still shouldn't be an excuse for sellers.
``The end seller is responsible for overseeing the entire process,'' said Lim. ``It's their duty no matter how much extra work it is for them.''
In an effort to fend off any negative ripple effects, some top snack makers said Wednesday they plan to send out food safety professionals to their Chinese factories.
Kirin, well-known for round sugar-coated rice snacks, said it will dispatch a team to China next week, and Lotte said it's going to use this opportunity to launch a major safety check from manufacturing to packaging.