Over the past five years, more than 3,000 violations of the Food Sanitation Act have been identified at franchise restaurants in the dining industry. According to data released on the 4th by Democratic Party lawmaker Seo Mi-hwa, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, a total of 3,133 violations were detected at franchise restaurants in nine dining sectors, including chicken and cafes, from 2020 to last year. Of these, the top 20 companies accounted for 2,189 cases, or about 70% of the total.
Among the companies, BBQ had the most violations with 201 cases, followed by BHC (186 cases), Mom’s Touch (172 cases), Mega Coffee (158 cases), Compose Coffee (153 cases), Goobne Chicken (140 cases), Lotteria (126 cases), and Kyochon Chicken (122 cases).
By sector, chicken chains had the most violations with 1,139 cases (36.4%), followed by cafes (617 cases, 19.7%), hamburgers (471 cases, 15.0%), tteokbokki (330 cases, 10.5%), pizza (267 cases, 8.5%), and mala soup (219 cases, 7.0%).
The most common violation type was “standards and specifications violations,” including foreign substances in food, with 1,158 cases (37%). Other violations included failure to complete hygiene education (968 cases, 30.9%), violations of hygienic handling standards (336 cases, 10.7%), failure to conduct health examinations (216 cases, 6.9%), and violations of operator compliance requirements (185 cases, 5.9%).
In terms of administrative actions, lighter penalties such as fines (1,451 cases) and corrective orders (1,321 cases) took up 88.5%. Business suspensions were issued in 167 cases (5.3%), fines in 110 cases (3.5%), and a single instance of business closure.
Annually, violations rose from 491 cases in 2020, to 501 cases in 2021, 662 cases in 2022, 759 cases in 2023, and 720 cases last year, marking a 46.6% increase over five years.
Lawmaker Seo emphasized, “There can be no compromise on food safety,” calling for franchise headquarters, along with the Food and Drug Safety Administration and local governments, to actively guide hygiene at franchise stores.