Korean teenagers are becoming more and more fond of Chinese candied fruit, or "Tanghulu."

              Every year in South Korea, a particular food becomes suddenly famous among the citizens. It could have been unfamous food for past years, but for somewhat reason, the food’s popularity spread out all over South Korea. There was a typical example of this boom that happened in the past. It is “Maratang,” which captivated numerous young people’s taste at first, and even old people started to enjoy having it. Many foreign people misapprehend that Maratang is a new “K-food.’ However, it is not at all. Maratang is a food that was created in China a long time ago and also settled in Korea for a long time. It was a sudden circumstance that Maratang became one of the most famous foods in South Korea. 

             A similar situation with Maratang occurred last summer. It was the appearance of “Tanghulu.” Tanghulu is a fruit stick that is covered by sugar. It was also already sold product, but it suddenly became “k-dessert.” The average yearly profit for Tanghuru business increased by 300% which was an unbelievable gain for Tanhuru firms. 

            However, different from Maratang, Tanghuru causes a big problem for society. It was because of its excessively added sugar. Many parents accused Tanghuru of being a “detrimental sugar snack,” and thus, the government took some actions to limit their production. Meanwhile, there are many opponents to the government taking it too seriously. Financial effects on Tanghuru's business were inevitably big, which made some of them shut down their firms. The government should stop regulating Tanghuru’s business because it is properly following the laws that are already written and needs to see the situation again from the perspective of Tanghuru businesses. 

                                           Did they make any illegal decisions?

              Based on the Korean law book, Tanghuru is not violating any kind of law. They are strictly following every rule for the businesses. There is no reason that they are being accused of producing the sugary snack. The business also can understand the parents’ thoughts of being concerned about their children having too much sugar. However, that’s it. They are the ones who make the business idea and properly sell the products. Concern should not provoke damage to the business. 

               The government does not take the problem of sugar intake seriously. It is because the government can do nothing about the problem. They only can advise the Tanghuru owners to reduce the amount of sugar. Indeed, Tanghuru businesses did decrease the amount of sugar getting into. 

              Still, the government doesn’t stop investigating the Tanghuru because of the environmental issue. Rather than parents complaining about their children’s health, there were many more complaints about the Tanghuru consumers throwing the wood stick anywhere which made the environment near the Tanghuru shop to be dirty and damaged. About this problem, the government can regulate the business to make a clear place for throwing away the trash or make the products more eco-friendly. Thus, every business is in the process of creating solutions for the environmental issue. Businesses can indeed do their best to make the solution, but the consumers are the ones who need to get changed. They should be blamed for throwing away the trash anywhere which is an illegal action. 

            In conclusion, Tanghuru doesn’t to be on the chopping block. They are just one of the businesses that are creating snacks. Only because they are popular and getting big love from the people, there is no reason for those who don’t like snacks to be offensive to Tanghuru. It is just a piece of sugar fruit, it shouldn’t be taken too seriously by the public.