By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Some retailers have been faking the origin of the foreign beef they sell either intentionally or unintentionally.
Of 284,000 stores and restaurants nationwide, 316 were caught for not identifying or faking the origin of the beef they were serving, prosecutors said Thursday.
A total of 242 were indicted, they added.
Most conspicuous was the labeling of foreign beef as domestic. Seventy-six restaurants falsely labeled American meat as Australian, and disguised dairy cow beef as home reared ``hanwoo.''
A golf resort in Jeju offered broiled rib with Australian beef but said it was Korean. In a buffet restaurant in Busan, Chinese broiled rib was sold as Australian product. A prosecutor said the false labeling was posted without any sense of guilt on the part of the restaurant owners.
The prosecution warned that fabricators of the origin of beef will not enjoy any leniency. They may face either a business shutdown or lose their licenses. Whistleblowers will be paid two million won for reporting any infractions, it said.