Korea moves to stop loophole that lets 200 ml milk contain just 191 ml

A 200-millilitre carton of milk could legally contain only 191 millilitres under South Korea's current individual-product tolerance rules. A proposed legal revision aims to stop companies from using that allowance to reduce average contents.

The National Agency for Technology and Standards under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said the partial amendment to the Measures Act was approved at a Cabinet meeting on the 8th. The bill covers products such as milk and snacks that display their volume or weight on the packaging.

The current system permits unavoidable measurement errors in individual products. If the tolerance for a 200 ml product is 4.5 percent, the maximum permitted shortage is 9 ml, meaning an individual product containing 191 ml or more meets the legal standard.

Under the new average-content requirement, each individual product would still have to contain at least 191 ml, while the average actual volume in sample or production-unit inspections would also have to reach at least the labeled 200 ml. The change is intended to reduce the risk that the existing tolerance rules will be exploited to keep average contents below the amount shown on the package.