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■ Broadcast: YTN Radio FM 94.5 (09:00-10:00)
■ Host: Reporter Cho Tae-hyun

■ Air date: October 11, 2024 (Friday)
■ Talk: Lee Jung-bin, head of the Food Microbiology Team of the Korea Consumer Agency's Testing and Inspection Bureau

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Reporter Cho Tae-hyun (hereinafter referred to as Cho Tae-hyun): It's time for Smart Consumer Life to deliver useful information that can make you a smart consumer. A cup of coffee that gives you a quick break and a boost while you're at work. I'm sure you'll be looking for a lot of instant products as well. It is said that the Consumer Agency compared and analyzed the quality and safety of instant coffee mix products sold on the market. Let's talk with Lee Jung-bin, head of the Food Microbiology Team of the Korea Consumer Agency's Testing and Inspection Bureau. Team leader, you're here, right?

◇ Lee Jung-bin, Team Leader of the Food Microbiology Team of the Korea Consumer Agency Test and Inspection Bureau (hereinafter Lee Jung-bin): Yes, hello.

◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Chemicals are sometimes added to make mixed coffee taste soft and sweet. There were differences in fat and sugar content by product type?

◇ Lee Jung-bin: Yes, latte coffee mix products had saturated fat, and regular coffee mix products had relatively high sugar content. The saturated fat content per coffee mix stick tested was 8-13% of the daily nutritional content standard for regular coffee mix, while latte coffee mix was 15-25% except for some products, which was relatively high in saturated fat. In the case of sugar content, regular coffee mix was 5-7% of the daily nutritional content standard per stick, and latte coffee mix was relatively high at 2-5% except for some products.

◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Which product contains more caffeine among regular coffee mixes and latte coffee mixes with milk?

◇ Lee Jung-bin: As for the caffeine content, there were more products with higher caffeine content than latte coffee mix. The regular coffee mix had a caffeine content of 41.9-53.8mg per stick, which was higher than the latte coffee mix containing 25.0-52.1mg of caffeine except for some products.

◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Since it is a product made by processing coffee beans, some people may be worried about foreign substances or toxic ingredients in the manufacturing process. You don't have to worry about this?

◇ Lee Jung-bin: Yes, ochratoxin A, a mold toxin that can be contaminated with coffee beans, lead, a heavy metal, acrylamide that can be produced when roasting coffee beans, and all products subject to the test met the relevant standards.

◆ Cho Tae-hyun: As you mentioned earlier, coffee mix products contain a lot of saturated fats and sugars. So, consumers will refer to nutritional ingredients when purchasing, but were there any labeling errors?

◇ Lee Jung-bin: As a result of checking the suitability of labeling nutritional ingredients at the Korea Consumer Agency, the actual content of protein and saturated fat in one product was different from the indicated value, so it was necessary to improve the labeling.

◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Taste is not only taste, but price is also important. Depending on the product, there is a difference of nearly four times per stick.

◇ Lee Jung-bin: Yes, there was a 3.8 times difference between regular and latte coffee mix prices. The average price per instant coffee mix stick was 146 won for regular coffee mix and 551 won for latte coffee mix, which was more expensive than regular coffee mix.

◆ Cho Tae-hyun: Thank you for your words today. Thank you! I was Lee Jung-bin, team leader of the Food Microbiology Team of the Korea Consumer Agency's Testing and Inspection Bureau.

◇ Lee Jung-bin: Yes, thank you.