Multiple companies have been caught selling egg white-derived albumin products with misleading advertisements portraying them as health functional foods. Consumers need to remain vigilant as advertisements falsely presenting general food products as medicines or health functional foods continue to proliferate.
"Fatigue Relief, Liver Support"—9 Companies Earned 1.8 Billion Won Through False Advertising
According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Tuesday, nine companies were caught selling approximately 1.8 billion won ($1.3 million) worth of albumin food products through online shopping malls by falsely advertising them as health functional foods.
The ministry's Emergency Response Team for Unfair Food Practices conducted an investigation from February 20 to March 3 and found violations of the Food Labeling and Advertising Act.
The violations fell into two main categories. Seven companies misled consumers by using phrases such as "fatigue relief," "helps maintain liver function," "albumin supplement," and "amino acid supplement" on general food products containing albumin, making them appear to be health functional foods.
The remaining two companies were found to have promoted characteristics of albumin as a substance—such as "albumin helps maintain osmotic pressure in blood vessels" and "low albumin levels can cause dizziness, edema, and ascites"—as if these were benefits consumers could obtain by consuming their products.
The ministry emphasized the importance of distinguishing between egg white albumin used as a food ingredient and serum albumin, which is a pharmaceutical product.
Serum albumin is a protein that performs vital physiological functions in blood and is a prescription medication administered by injection to patients with conditions such as liver cirrhosis, under a doctor's supervision. In contrast, egg white albumin is simply a food protein extracted from egg whites that only provides nutritional supplementation when consumed and is entirely different from pharmaceutical products.
12 Companies Also Caught Using Unreported Containers—20.3 Billion Won Scale
The ministry also announced it had opened investigations into 12 companies for violations of the Food Sanitation Act and Health Functional Foods Act after they manufactured approximately 20.3 billion won ($14.7 million) worth of products using containers that were not properly declared for food import.
These companies manufactured 108 product items including albumin foods using undeclared containers, and 51 distribution and sales companies were also found to have distributed and sold these products in the market.
"The albumin food products caught in this investigation are general foods that have not been approved as medicines or health functional foods," said Baek Nam-i, head of the Emergency Response Team for Unfair Food Practices. "It is difficult to expect the efficacy and effects advertised, so consumers should be careful not to be deceived by false advertising."
Baek added, "We will continue to swiftly block the creation and spread of illegal and unfair advertising and will respond strictly to any violations."
