A specific post-meal blood-glucose functional statement is being restricted for foods that meet low-sugar criteria through sweetener use. Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on October 26, 2026, that it had amended the rule on October 23. The new provision takes effect January 1, 2028. A label seen in an October 2026 shop is not automatically a violation of this future rule.
As of October 28, 2026. This follows the agency’s release and attached PDF. The full amended notice and individual products were not independently checked.
The specific scope
The restriction concerns a statement that a food made low-sugar using sweeteners contains an ingredient or component associated with suppressing a post-meal blood-glucose rise. The release defines the cited low-sugar threshold as less than 5 g of sugars per 100 g of food, or less than 2.5 g per 100 mL. “Less than” excludes the boundary value. The figures are per-unit thresholds, not necessarily the total sugars in a bottle or packet.
The agency uses indigestible maltodextrin as an example: its presence alone would not allow the relevant functional statement on a sweetener-based low-sugar product. The ingredient itself is not banned. The comparison with low-sugar foods made without sweeteners is an example, not unconditional permission to use a claim regardless of other rules.
Reading a package
The agency explicitly says the amendment does not prohibit sweetener use or sales of low-sugar food. Read a sugar-content description separately from an ingredient-related functional statement. Compare the 100 g or 100 mL unit with the amount you would actually consume. This is a reading tip, not an assessment of a particular product’s effect or safety.
Do not read such wording as a guarantee of diabetes prevention or treatment, replacement for medicine, or an individual blood-glucose response. This announcement concerns labeling and advertising. The agency points readers to the national legal information centre or its amended-notice pages for the detailed notice; later amendments should also be checked before the effective date.
Naver version
The Life Mokcha Naver post covers the same topic in Korean.
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