Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
By Park Si-soo
South Korea's food safety regulator has banned HiteJinro from using "Clean Lager" on all forms of promotional material for its TERRA beer.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said the expression was "exaggerated" and could "mislead" customers.
The ministry is studying what kind of administrative penalty it will impose along with the ban.
HiteJinro has promoted TERRA's cleanness with the expression since its market debut in March last year ― using the term on bottle labels, TV commercials and online and offline promotional material.
The company claimed TERRA stood out in cleanness compared with rival beers ― mainly from Oriental Brewery (OB) and Lotte Chilsung Beverage ― because it was made with "malts harvested in exceptionally clean areas in Australia."
But the ministry said the use of Australian malts itself did not provide sufficient grounds for the company to claim the product's exceptional cleanness, pointing out that OB and Lotte also produced beer with Australian malts. Even if the company actually used "exceptionally clean malts," it had limited impact on the final quality, the ministry said.
