Beef Origin Supervision Elusive
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Another tricky task has been added to the government's to-do list. From Tuesday, it will supervise virtually all food-serving facilities nationwide to make sure they specify where the meat they're serving is from. But before the monitoring started, skepticism has begun eating into the plan.
Critics and hardcore protestors against resuming U.S. beef imports are questioning how realistic the proposed plan to inspect more than 640,000 restaurants scattered across the country is.
The new measure, which was adopted by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in mid-May to quell opposition to the imports, will have 6,000 monitoring officials inspect all restaurants, fast food shops, catering services, schools and hospitals by the end of the year. Thereafter, the number of inspectors will be steeply cut to less than 700.
Supervision will first begin with facilities larger than 100 square meters, then expanded to smaller-sized businesses in October. Violators who fail to comply will be fined up to 5 million won ($4,800).
Skeptics, which surprisingly include some government officials, point out two problems with the plan.
The first is that it is impossible to oversee the overwhelming number of eateries, given the limited number of people assigned to the task. Even Deputy Agriculture Minister Park Deok-bae admitted that the new measure is symbolic.
He told the press, ``It's impossible to supervise all the restaurants, and we shouldn't even do so,'' as he said excessive monitoring will only lead to a decline in consumption.
Park hinted that the supervision carries more of a campaign-like character, rather than a serious crackdown.
Another problem for the mad cow scaremongers is the three-month ``guidance period'' given to the small restaurants.
``Why wait three months when U.S. beef is available for all businesses already?'' said 34-year-old Kim Tae-eun, who has participated in more than 15 beef protests since May. He claimed the government's delayed implementation means it is putting at risk the health of low-income earners, who mostly dine in the small eateries.
The monitoring guidelines may seem to weak for wary consumers, but restaurant owners think differently.
``No matter how loose the supervision is, we still have another thing to worry about,'' said Kim Sul-rang, who runs an oxtail soup eatery in southern Seoul. He said many people are still unaware of how they're even supposed to specify the origin.
Another owner of a restaurant that sells more than 20 different dishes said, ``It is ridiculous to have to indicate the origin of beef even for dishes that contain a tiny amount of meat.''