It has been revealed that a large supermarket chain in Germany is selling products with a phrase saying that kimchi originated in China.
On the 10th, Seo Kyung-deok, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University, posted a picture on social media, saying, “Kimchi with the phrase ‘originating from China’ written on it was openly being sold at a famous European mart.”
As a result of research by Professor Seo’s team, this product named ‘ASIA GREEN GARDEN’ was an in-house brand product produced by ‘ALDI’, a large supermarket chain in Germany.
Between the product logo and ‘KIMCHI’, ‘Chinese’ was written. At the bottom of the cover, the phrase “Original aus China·Originale dalla Cina” was written in German and Italian.
Kimchi being sold at a large multinational supermarket chain store. Between the logo and ‘KIMCHI’, ‘Chinese’ is written. At the very bottom, in German and Italian, it says ‘originating from China’. Aldi official website captureProfessor Seo said, “I wonder how this could happen in the middle of Europe,” and “I sent a protest email to the company and asked them to stop selling it.” He continued, “If we want to continue selling, we strongly demanded that the phrase originating from China be corrected to ‘originating from Korea’ and then sold.”
China has distorted Korean kimchi as imitating ‘Paochai’, a Chinese pickled food. In 2020, when China registered the Pao Chai manufacturing method with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the claim that ‘the original form of kimchi is Pao Chai’ spread among Chinese netizens, causing controversy.
Lee Ye-ji,
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.