Body fat loss, appetite inhibitors, eating high cost...Send general food to the prosecution representing five companies for unfair advertisements like pharmaceuticals and dry food

Aug 20, 2025

Image=Ministry of Food and Drug Safety

Representatives of five companies who illegally advertised and sold general foods as health functional foods and obesity treatments on social media were sent to the prosecution on charges of violating the Act on Labeling and Advertising of Food and Others.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it has launched an investigation to check online posts advertising general foods such as fruits and vegetables on social media such as YouTube as if they are effective in treating obesity and suppressing appetite, and to investigate the exact violation.

As a result of the investigation, it was confirmed that the company sold a total of 32.4 billion won from January 2024 to June 2025 by unfairly advertising general foods like medicines or health functional foods such as 'Eating Wigobi (obesity treatment)', 'Eating appetite suppressor', and 'Body fat reduction' and linking them to the sales site through influencer's blog. In order to find out that it is possible to write reviews on specific products on personal SNS, they delivered advertising keywords such as '7kg loss per month' and 'super strong appetite suppression' to the influencer and used the keywords to produce and post videos as if they were their own experience reviews.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety urged "If you want to purchase food and health functional foods online, be careful not to be misled by unfair advertisements, and check the Food and Drug Administration's website to see if the functionality of purchasing health functional foods has been recognized by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety."

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.