The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 15th that it had discovered violations of labeling rules in several products after investigating 20 pet nutritional supplements sold both online and offline. The investigation also revealed numerous instances of exaggerated advertising in 100 online advertisements.
According to the Consumer Agency, some products among the pet nutritional supplements sold online and offline either did not contain the functional ingredients listed or contained them in insufficient amounts. Specifically, one joint nutrition product had no detectable glucosamine, while seven products contained only 1% to 38% of the amount of functional ingredients stated on the label. One product was found to contain 6 ppm of selenium, a component that is restricted to less than 2 ppm.
In addition, among the 20 products investigated, 17 were labeled as containing vitamin A and vitamin D; however, seven of those products did not contain vitamin D, and four did not contain either vitamin A or vitamin D. However, all 20 products showed levels of heavy metals and pathogenic bacteria below the standards or were not present.
The Consumer Agency also examined 100 online advertisements for pet nutritional supplements and found that 67 of them claimed effectiveness in disease prevention and treatment without scientific evidence, raising concerns of exaggerated advertising. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs prohibits advertisements claiming that pet nutritional supplements are effective for treating specific diseases according to the 'standards and specifications for feed.'
The Consumer Agency recommended that businesses with insufficient or undetectable functional ingredients improve quality and requested that publishers of misleading advertisements modify or remove them. Additionally, it plans to request the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to formulate a management plan for functional ingredients of pet nutritional supplements and strengthen inspections of labeling and advertising.