Food ministry finds 33 hygiene violations in convenience store, vending machine sweep

The food and drug safety ministry said Thursday it had caught 33 of 4,531 convenience stores and unmanned food outlets violating hygiene rules during a five-day inspection in September, with expired products accounting for nearly nine in ten of the cases.

The ministry inspected outlets that cook and sell coffee, chicken and similar food, working alongside local governments from Sept. 14 to 18, and referred the 33 businesses, or 0.7 percent of those checked, to their local authorities for administrative action. The ministry said it has been running these focused inspections on a quarterly basis this year to raise hygiene and safety standards at convenience stores and unmanned food outlets.

Stores that keep or display products past their consumption date made up almost all of the violations: 29 of the 33, comprising 11 convenience stores and 18 unmanned outlets. The ministry said it would confirm within six months whether each business had corrected the problem.

The violation rate was higher at unmanned outlets, where 19 of 1,256 inspected were cited, than at staffed convenience stores, where 14 of 3,275 were. Eighteen of the unmanned stores had expired products on display or for sale, and one had opened packaged food and sold it in smaller portions than the minimum sales unit.

At convenience stores, the remaining three cases apart from the expired-product violations involved staff not wearing sanitary caps or masks, a missed health check and a waste container left without a lid.

Food safety tests gave a cleaner result. The ministry collected 112 items, including chicken cooked and sold at convenience stores, and tested them for food poisoning bacteria and other contaminants; all were found suitable.

"We will continue to strengthen safety management of convenience stores and unmanned food outlets that many people use, and take strict action on violations to create a safe food environment," the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said.