Farmers harvest Chinese cabbages, or “baechu” in Korean, from a field in Chuncheon, northeast of Seoul, on Oct. 27, 2020. Baechu is one of the main ingredients in kimchi, a traditional Korean dish made from pickled baechu with spicy seasoning. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Food poisoning bacteria have been found in some kimchi products imported from China, South Korea’s drug safety agency said Tuesday.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety performed an inspection on the process of customs clearance and distribution of imported foods over the past two months starting from March.
After the inspection, it announced on Tuesday that it had found food poisoning bacteria in some cabbage kimchi, pickled cabbage and kimchi ingredients imported from China.
In detail, the ministry inspected a total of 289 Chinese-made kimchi products for which import declarations were filed by 55 companies.
Among them, food poisoning bacteria (Yersinia enterocolitica) were detected in 15 products that failed to meet food standard guidelines.
Yersinia, which is widely present in natural environments such as water and soil, is a food poisoning bacteria that grows even in low temperatures of between 0 and 5 degrees Celsius.
Those infected with the bacteria can suffer from symptoms including diarrhea, stomachache and headache.
Among four Chinese-made pickled cabbage products for which import declarations were made by two companies, two products from one company were found to have dehydroacetic acid, a preservative banned from use in South Korea.
The ministry ordered concerned companies to return or dispose of such products.
In addition, it decided to carry out thorough inspections for five consecutive times if import declarations are made once again for the concerned products, while asking the government of the export country to make improvements.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
