Michelin-Starred Restaurant Raided... The Twist Behind 'Black Grains' in the Refrigerator

[Anchor]

A famous restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul, that used ants as an ingredient has been sentenced to a fine. Since ants cannot be used as food in South Korea, this restaurant had been serving dishes topped with ants to customers for nearly four years.

Reporter Kim Minjun has the details.

[Reporter]

In July of last year, a crackdown team from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety entered the kitchen of a well-known two-star Michelin restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul.

Containers filled with black grains were found inside the refrigerator. They turned out to be ants, which were served as a topping on certain dishes, such as sherbet ice cream.

[Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Official - Restaurant Staff (July of last year): Are they just as they are? Or have they been heated or processed in any way? (They are not cooked. They were just frozen.)]

The restaurant had gained popularity online for its ant toppings. Following the crackdown last year, it was handed over to trial in May of this year for violating the Food Sanitation Act.

This is because only 10 species of insects, including grasshoppers, mealworms, and rhinoceros beetle larvae, are approved for consumption as food in South Korea, and ants are not included.

According to the investigation, the restaurant had been importing dried ant products from the United States and Thailand since 2021 and serving them as toppings on certain dishes.

While prosecutors demanded a one-year prison sentence for the restaurant's representative, identified as A, the first-instance court sentenced representative A to a fine of 15 million won and the operating corporation to a fine of 10 million won today (September 16).

The court explained, "Considering that heavy metals exceeding the standard were detected in the ants, the crime is not light," but added, "We took into account that the defendants admitted to the crime, are first-time offenders, and appear not to have been aware that ants were an unauthorized food ingredient since they are used as food materials overseas."

(Video by: Kim Hangyul, Video Editing by: Shin Seeun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.