Franchise restaurants including major fried chicken chains and cafes have been cited more than 3,000 times for food safety violations over the past five years, according to government data released on Thursday.

Rep. Seo Mi-hwa of the Democratic Party (DP), a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, disclosed data from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety showing that 3,133 violations of the Food Sanitation Act were recorded at nine types of food and beverage franchises between 2020 and 2024.

The number of violations has steadily risen, increasing 46.6 percent over the period. There were 491 cases in 2020, 501 in 2021, 662 in 2022, 759 in 2023 and 720 in 2024.

Chicken franchises accounted for the largest share with 1,139 cases, or 36.4 percent, followed by cafes with 617 cases or 19.7 percent, burger chains with 471 cases or 15 percent, tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) outlets with 330 cases or 10.5 percent, pizza franchises with 267 cases or 8.5 percent and malatang (spicy soup) restaurants with 219 cases or 7 percent.

Violations were highly concentrated among the largest brands. The top 20 companies accounted for 2,189 cases, or nearly 70 percent of the total.

BBQ had the most with 201 violations, followed by BHC with 186, Mom’s Touch with 172, Mega Coffee with 158 and Compose Coffee with 153, followed by other chicken franchises.

The most common violations involved breaches of food standards such as foreign substances in products, which accounted for 1,158 cases, or 37 percent. This was followed by failure to complete required hygiene training, accounting for 968 cases, or 30.9 percent, and improper sanitary handling accounting for 336 cases or 10.7 percent. Failure to conduct mandatory health checkups accounted for 216 cases or 6.9 percent and other violations of business compliance rules amounted to 185 cases or 5.9 percent.

Most penalties were relatively light. Administrative fines and corrective orders accounted for 88.5 percent of all sanctions, with 1,451 cases of fines and 1,321 corrective orders. More serious measures included 167 business suspensions, or 5.3 percent of all cases, 110 fines, at 3.5 percent, and just one business closure.

“Ensuring food safety is nonnegotiable,” Rep. Seo said. “The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, local governments, and franchise headquarters alike must strengthen oversight and guidance to protect consumers.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]