Court orders Koreatown business to stop advertising radish paste as coronavirus treatment

A judge granted an injunction Wednesday that prohibits a nutritional supplement store in Koreatown from billing radish paste as a treatment capable of warding off the novel coronavirus.

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office had sued Insan Healing and its founder, Angela K. Oh, alleging she violated state laws that prohibit false advertising. Insan Healing billed its radish paste — a blend of “white radish harvested during frost,” garlic and ginger — as an “immunity boost to your lungs” and a “must-have product for the protection and prevention of the COVID-19,” Frank Capetillo, an investigator for the city attorney’s office, said in an affidavit filed in court.

The paste costs $99.95 per jar, according to Insan Healing’s website, which has since removed all mention of the coronavirus and the infection it causes.

“In this public health emergency, consumers are entitled to accurate information,” City Atty. Mike Feuer said when the lawsuit was filed. “Their lives may depend on it.”

On Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Terry Green granted the preliminary injunction Feuer’s office had sought and forbade Oh and her company from making any “untrue or misleading statements” about radish paste’s ability to “diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat or prevent” the coronavirus or COVID-19.

Law enforcement authorities and the Federal Trade Commission have warned consumers against dubious or outright fraudulent treatments for COVID-19, including colloidal silver cures, which health officials have said do nothing for and can even harm your health.