Food, clothing, and shelter are necessities in life, and among these, food is directly connected to health so it is especially important. A safe food culture keeps people healthy, if it’s unsafe, people’s well-being is jeopardized.  For that sole reason, food products should be safe and this safety should be vigorously maintained.

However, the foods that are being consumed these days don't seem that reliable. The problem lies in the fact that the people who produce, prepare and cook the food don't seem to give much consideration to the people who eat that food. Stories about this kind of situation have been rampant in the news media of late. We constantly have to question if the food served to us is prepared hygienically and also whether the ingredients are safe. Even the dining tables in a restaurant could possibly harbor toxic contaminants that are a threat to our health.

Because we can't trust many of the foods we eat when we go out, we often cook at home. Even if we personally cook our own food at home, there seems to be no safeguards that the food products we buy in the market or store are safe. Japanese mackerel is often labelled as domestic. Doenjang stew, one of the main staples of Korean cuisine, often contains many kinds of food additives. After the horrific Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, Koreans have been very reticent about consuming Japanese food reserves. To combat this problem, Korean food salesmen switch the information on Japanese food products and claim the products are domestic, or from Taiwan or Russia. They just repackage the item so they can sell it to shoppers. Consumers who can't check, or fail to check the origin of the product are defenseless and are often exposed to food reserves which are contaminated by radioactivity.

Doenjang, which is usually known as a healthy food, may not be if we buy it made in company. Generally, Doenjang takes 2 years from fermentation to maturity. Naturally ripened Doenjang when eaten can remove impurities in the body and it has anti-cancer properties in it. Often though, when Doenjang comes into the market, it is a processed variety that is ripened as quickly as possible by inoculating aspergillus oryzae into beans. It may also contain chemical additives like MSG to enhance the taste. The Doenjang that we buy and are led to believe is healthy for us, is too often packed with food additives, making it unhealthy for human consumption.

Food additives are not only found in Doenjang. They appear in numerous food products found on supermarket store shelves. The “Food Sanitation Law” which creates edicts or laws associated with processed foods and food additives is responsible for informing consumers by labelling the ingredients of a product. According to the Food Sanitation Law, small products, even if they contain many kinds of food additives, only have to list the 5 main ingredients on the product label. This law allows food producers to put harmful additives into their products without actually having to list the additives on the food label. Korea needs to clamp down and punish food producers who violate food safety laws. Yet, it would be virtually impossible for a nation to check every food additive administered to the nation’s food reserves. This puts the food producers in a safe position to continue inserting unhealthy additives into our food.  Because of their unconscionable behavior, the law that was established to help protect us is being abused. Consumers must be informed of this situation so they are aware of the dangers to their nutritional health.

False expiration dates also threaten the health of consumers. Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office inspected twenty-three bread makers in Seoul and found eight that had marked false expiration dates on their products. Many of them had kept cakes with false expiry dates and many also extended the expiry date and sold them to bakeries and hotels. This situation however, where many of the food producers were prosecuted is fairly uncommon, and many food producers continue to flout the laws regarding expiration dates.

Because of all these reasons, you could possibly sit down at the table tonight and have a meal that threatens your health. This is because of the unscrupulous behavior of food manufacturers and distributors. They aim to deceive the consumers in order attain a financial profit. Pursuing profits clouds the producers and sellers minds to what is right and what is wrong. They have forgotten their responsibility as the nation’s food suppliers and sell food that is harmful to the general public. Doctors have the Hippocratic Oath, a code of ethics for doctors. Like doctors, food suppliers and cooks should have a code of ethics where they make the right choices in order to safe guard the health of Korean citizens

A Professor of Food Science and Nutrition at Catholic University, Kim Seok-shin has set a task for   his students to establish a Cooks' Code of Ethics. In the Code of Ethics that the students made, these contents have been entered: Cooks should not ever endanger or threaten life. Cooks should be morally responsible for their actions. Cooks should keep the notion of safety first, and have a sense of responsibility prior to the gaining of profits. In conclusion, I feel that in order to stop the current food problems, regulation by the government needs to be more sophisticated and strengthened now. But overall, I want to impress upon cooks that they need to keep in mind that making safe and reliable food dishes is the ultimate goal for success. In life food is essential, and food producers and cooks need to conduct themselves in a manner where they accept that the health and happiness of consumers is the main priority. Consumers are looking forward to once again going out and eating in an environment where they feel safe and secure with the food that is being served to their family and friends.