Ottogi caught selling horseradish labeled as Japanese wasabi

Ottogi Chairman Ham Young-joon / Courtesy of Ottogi

By Kim Jae-heun

Nine food firms here including Ottogi have been found to be selling horseradish mislabeled as Japanese wasabi. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has decided to take administrative measures against them.

The ministry last week that the nine companies were in violation of the Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods.

“We will continue to inspect food companies that deceive customers by falsely labeling their products,” the food ministry official said.

The five wasabi manufacturers either used only or mainly horseradish, ― which costs five to 10 times less than wasabi ― to produce their spicy food paste. The food ministry classifies horseradish and wasabi as different vegetable ingredients under its food standards.

Horseradish root is included in cheap, fake wasabi products, while real wasabi paste is made of Japanese wasabi stem.

Ottogi, specifically, sold five “wasabi” pastes made of 20 percent to 75 percent horseradish and horseradish powder between November 2020 and July 2021. The food giant failed to mention the amount of horseradish powder on the product labels. The ministry sees Ottogi has produced some 321 tons of horseradish paste valued at 3.14 billion won ($2.7 million).

Ottogi maintains its innocence, though.

“It is not true that we have changed our food materials. We should've marked that we used horseradish we imported from the West, but the government ordered us to label the specific origin of the food material used only starting at the end of last year. We will ensure clear labeling from Aug. 16,” an Ottogi official said.

Another food firm Woomtree also sold 11 products it labeled as “100 percent wasabi,” which were produced in the same period using 15 percent to 90 percent horseradish. Woomtree manufactured some 457 tons of horseradish products worth 3.21 billion won and sold them to 50 retailers here including E-mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus.

Daeryuk Food made two wasabi pastes with 90.99 percent and 95.93 percent horseradish powder each and sold them online this year between March and June.

Other food manufacturers involved in the wasabi mislabeling are Nokmiwon and Ajujon.

The food ministry said it will request local governments to take administrative measures against four entities that sold food companies' fake wasabi products.