Additional 13 Chinese Diet Products Banned

The Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) announced on August 1, 2002 that it prohibited the importation of 13 kinds of Chinese diet products. The Chinese diet foods contain an ingredient “Fenfluramine” which is banned in Korea for human consumption.

The KFDA also made public the names of the prohibited products

The KFDA explained, “Our banning was made as the Chinese government repealed the licenses for the production of those products, which have caused in Asian countries such as Korea and Japan many kinds of damage such as the live failure.”

Previously on July 12th, the KFDA banned the importation of another 10 Chinese diet foods such as Slim 10, which were found by the Japanese authorities containing Fenfluramine.

Chang Jun-sik, a high-ranking official at the KFDA confirmed on August 1st, “We have analyzed the first reported cases caused by the Chinese diets in Korea. But it took a little time since we did not have other ingredients needed for comparison with the ingredients in the Chinese diet products. Thus, the result will come out next week.”

hanscho@donga.com