Food and drug safety ministry launches real-time recall alerts via Guppi

The food and drug safety ministry said Tuesday it would begin delivering real-time food recall and sales suspension alerts through the government's Guppi digital assistant service starting July 28. The move aims to resolve inconveniences where consumers previously had to manually check the Food Safety Korea website or wait for delayed notifications.

Previously, individuals had to visit the ministry's Food Safety Korea website directly or subscribe to a separate alert system that typically took about three hours to deliver information. The upgraded service eliminates this delay by pushing notifications instantly to users' smartphones through the Guppi platform, which links administrative information with private mobile applications.

Consumers can sign up for the alerts on the Guppi website or through mobile apps operated by KakaoTalk, Naver, Toss, major telecommunications carriers and leading banks. The update applies to all recall and sales suspension cases occurring from July 28 onward.

"We expect this service will help prevent the purchase and consumption of affected products since people no longer need to search for recall information themselves," the ministry said.