No ‘shrinkflation’ surprises: South Korea mandates food firms to indicate portion reductions and sweetener usage on product labels
According to the local Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), these changes have been implemented in order to both create a safe food consumption environment as well as guarantee and protect consumers’ rights to making informed decisions.
“These new provisions are meant to prevent consumers from any [unexpected] surprises resulting from ‘shrinkflation’ decisions made by the companies, or intense sweetness in products that emphasise sugar-free or less-sugar,” MFDS Minister Oh Yoo-kyung said via a formal statement.
“The shrinkflation phenomenon has been taking place as [companies] seek to indirectly increase prices by maintaining the food product prices but actually reducing the content inside.
“As of January 1 2025, all food products which have had the net content reduced [will be required] to display the relevant changes to the product. For example, if the net weight was previously X grams and is now Y grams, this must be labelled as: Net weight Y grams (previous net weight X grams)
“If the content of a particular ingredient has changed, this must also be highlighted, for example: Ginseng content is Y grams (product has had ginseng content changed, X grams → Y grams OR XX% reduction).”
Only two exceptions will be made in this situation which are cases where the product net unit price is not increased by adjusting the factory production pricing at the same time; and cases where the rate of change is found to be less than 5%.
On the other hand, all food and beverage products making claims such as ‘zero-sugar’, ‘sugar-free’, ‘unsweetened’ and so on will now need to specifically highlight any use of sweeteners and any calories involved.
“This regulation will be enforced starting January 1 2026 in order to ensure consumers are able to make the correct choices surrounding foods and beverages using sweeteners to replace sugar, particularly surrounding the calorie information,” she added.
“It will require companies to specifically mention that sweetener is being used, and to include information on the calories that are added to the product as a result as opposed to just labelling as ‘zero sugar’.
“Improved label examples would include ‘Zero Sugar (contains sweeteners, XYZ kcal)’ or ‘Zero Sugar (contains sweeteners, not a reduced-calorie product)’ and so on.
“It will also be mandatory to highlight in the ingredients list which items are actually sweeteners, as it can be difficult for consumers to recognise these by the names along – so the list must read: Aspartame (sweetener), xylitol (sweetener) and so on.
“There will now be 22 different types of sweeteners which are mandatory to highlight, including aspartame, acesulfame K, sucralose, steviol glycosides, mannitol, erythritol, xylitol and 15 more.”
Alcohol cautions
In addition to these, MFDS will also start standardising the printing fonts for alcohol product caloric information labelling, in order to promote healthier drinking habit, starting January 2026.
“The calories on alcohol products will be printed in large and bold font size so that consumers will be able to see these easily,” said the ministry.
“This calorie information is displayed on a voluntary basis by the companies, but this move is hoped to prevent excessive drinking habits.
“For example, the existing labelling of 500ml (330kcal) will be improved to be 500ml (330kcal).”
