[Anchor]
A massive uproar is sweeping through China as it was revealed that cabbages were distributed after being soaked in a carcinogen to maintain freshness. The Chinese government has begun tracking the distribution channels, while South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is also checking whether any have been imported into the country.
Correspondent Han Sang-woo reports from Beijing.
[Reporter]
At a cabbage cultivation farm in Kangbao County, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China, workers are busy loading harvested cabbages onto trucks.
However, before loading them onto the trucks, the root parts of the cabbages are dipped one by one into an unidentified liquid.
This liquid is formaldehyde, a Group 1 carcinogen.
To keep the cabbages fresh, farmers used formaldehyde, a disinfectant and preservative also used for storing biological tissues.
These cabbages appear to have been distributed to various regions across China, including Jiangsu Province, located 1,000 kilometers away from the cultivation site.
[Weiliqige / Blogger who exposed formaldehyde cabbage: (Where do you deliver these cabbages?) To Jiangsu Province. (Is this delivery heading to Yancheng in Jiangsu? Or Changzhou?) It's going to Suqian.]
As the controversy grew, the Chinese government launched an investigation to track the distribution routes and volume of cabbages from the farm in question.
Authorities have ordered checks for formaldehyde contamination in cabbages nationwide.
In China, similar incidents occurred in 2012 and 2015, when over 1.5 million tons of cabbage pickled in formaldehyde were distributed.
Chinese consumers are growing anxious about how far and how extensively the formaldehyde-treated cabbages have been distributed.
However, an even bigger concern is that South Korea, which imports more than 300,000 tons of Chinese kimchi and cabbage annually, cannot let its guard down.
Last year, South Korea's imports of Chinese cabbage reached 20,000 tons, while kimchi imports totaled 310,000 tons.
Furthermore, Chinese kimchi imports from January to July this year exceeded 194,000 tons, marking a record high for the same period.
Starting yesterday (August 23), the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety increased the frequency of formaldehyde inspections on Chinese cabbage at customs clearance checkpoints.
The ministry also announced that it is investigating whether the problematic cabbages were brought into South Korea through the South Korean Embassy in China and other channels.
However, in the case of finished kimchi products, while the location of the kimchi factory must be reported, it is difficult to trace which region in China the cabbage ingredients came from, calling for more thorough responses.
(Video footage: Choi Deok-hyun | Video editing: Jeong Yong-hwa | Design: Lee Ga-jin, Lim Chan-hyuk | Video source: Chinese Douyin account @weiliqige)
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