Seoul Milk Assures Quality, Freshness

Seoul Milk labels the production date, as seen in the red penciled part, of its products as well as expiration date, although the current law only requires food manufacturers to print just one of the dates. / Korea Times

By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

Seoul Milk, the country's oldest and biggest dairy producer, has been recognized for its leading quality of products such as milk, yogurt and other beverages for more than 70 years.

And the company isn't resting on its laurels, as it continues to commit to improving quality to let customers know that they are getting the best and freshest products available at all times.

In July, Seoul Milk became the first dairy producer to put the production date on its milk cartons. The country's current food safety law requires food makers to reveal either the production or expiration date of products, but not both, often leaving consumers questioning how long the products have been sitting on store shelves.

Seoul Milk's decision to disclose both dates on its milk cartons seems to be drawing positive reviews from consumers.

Since implementing the labeling policy on July 14, the company has been selling about 9.38 million cartons per day, up from its previous level of about 8 million per day.

During September, the company even sold more than 10 million cartons for four straight days, which is around 44 percent of the 23 million milk cartons sold daily in the country.

The sharp increase in the company's milk sales is impressive when considering that overall milk consumption has been dipping in the past few years due to low birth rates, Seoul Milk officials said.

``The decision to label our milk products with the production dates is also connected with our efforts to innovate production and delivery procedures to enhance the freshness of our products,'' said Noh Min-ho, an official from Seoul Milk's marketing unit.

``Printing the production dates means we need to increase our efforts to reduce the time between production and shipment of our milk products, which means that the produced amount and the level of consumer demand should be matched more precisely. This has us providing fresher milk, which also contributes to reducing our inventory.''

Seoul Milk is planning to eventually expand the printing of production dates on all of its products, which include flavored milk, yogurt, coffee, fruit beverages, cheese and ice cream.

Seoul Milk is currently running a prize competition on its Web page (www.seoulmilk.co.kr), which continues through the end of January.

The high scorers of the online quiz will be awarded a selection of prizes, including 375 grams of gold to the first-place winner, 20 1 million won gift certificates, cosmetic products, agricultural products and of course, Seoul Milk's dairy products to others. The winners will be announced on Feb. 11.