The picture depicts a small intestine as Korean, while depicting a large intestine as Western. / Screen captured from Facebook



By Lee Han-soo





CJ CheilJedang's ‘BYO'

/ Screen captured from Gmarket

South Korean food maker CJ CheilJedang has become a laughing stock among foreigners here for misrepresenting small and large intestines as racial differences between Koreans and Westerners, on the packaging of a company health product.

The product is called "BYO," a lactic acid bacteria powder extracted from kimchi. Its cover bears two diagrams of intestines ― one labeled as Korean and the other for Westerners. The alleged Western intestine resembles the large intestine, while the Korean one is similar to a small intestine.

The images have prompted a somewhat absurd question: Could the shape of the human intestine vary depending on race?

"I get that Koreans want to feel superior in every way, but insisting they have longer intestines is maybe a bit too much," a foreigner wrote."It's as if the company gave no thought in drawing foreigners' intestine length."

Many studies have confirmed there are no significant differences in colonic length and shape between Westerners and Asians.

A CJ spokeswoman said the distorted image was adopted to emphasize that the company's lactic acid bacteria powder was designed to be better than imported products in terms of survival in the intestines of Koreans, the product's main target customers.

She noted that there was no intention of racial discrimination.

"We wanted to show that our product lasts longer than other products and is most suitable for Koreans," the spokeswoman told The Korea Times on Monday.

"The picture is not intended as racial discrimination ― it is intended to be an informative picture that shows the different intestine lengths of Koreans and Westerners."