A restaurant at Seoul's Gwangjang Market will face a fine after an employee was caught retrieving discarded ice from a trash bin and reusing it to store food ingredients. Critics, however, argue the penalty is too lenient.
According to Jongno-gu Office on Tuesday, a citizen on December 30 spotted a restaurant employee at Gwangjang Market taking disposable cups of ice from a trash bin in front of the store, rinsing them with water, and filling a Styrofoam box containing fish entrails (goni) with the ice.
The whistleblower alleged that the employee continued cooking without washing hands or changing the gloves used to rummage through the trash. The incident gained wider attention after being reported on JTBC's program "Case Chief," fueling public outrage.
Following an on-site investigation, Jongno-gu Office concluded that the restaurant had violated sanitary handling standards under the Food Sanitation Act. The office decided to impose a fine of 1 million won for reusing ice on food ingredients and an additional 500,000 won for handling food with contaminated gloves, bringing the total to 1.5 million won.
However, the "prohibition on food reuse" clause under Article 44 of the Food Sanitation Act, which allows for business suspension, was not applied.
"That clause applies when a restaurant reuses food that had already been served to customers," a district office official said. "In this case, the ice was taken from an external trash bin, so the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and other authorities replied that the clause is legally difficult to apply."
The decision has drawn criticism online, with many calling the fine-only penalty a slap on the wrist.
As the controversy grew, Gwangjang Inc., the operator of Gwangjang Market, separately imposed a three-week business suspension on the restaurant. The owner has reportedly acknowledged the ice reuse and issued an apology.
Jongno-gu plans to expand sanitation inspections of restaurants within Gwangjang Market in the wake of the incident.
