"Never Eating It Again": Rising Domestic Anxiety Over Chinese Cabbage Controversy

[Anchor]

As Chinese cabbage soaked in formaldehyde, a Group 1 carcinogen, has been distributed in China, domestic consumer anxiety regarding Chinese kimchi is also on the rise.

Reporter Park Ha-jeong investigated just how dangerous this is and what the situation is like in South Korea.

[Reporter]

Kimchi on special discount at a supermarket in Seoul was manufactured in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China.

It is difficult to know where the cabbage used as an ingredient for the kimchi was grown.

[Importer Representative: It is indeed Chinese-made kimchi, and it was manufactured in a HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) certified factory.]

Of the 194,400 tons of kimchi imported this year, 99.9% came from China.

Anxiety has spread to South Korea after it was belatedly revealed that cabbage in Hebei Province, China, was distributed after being soaked in a formaldehyde solution to maintain freshness.

[Kim Tae-young: I am going to avoid eating kimchi altogether when going to restaurants. You can pretty much assume that restaurants use Chinese kimchi.]

[Lee Eun-young: I think I will avoid purchasing products if the origin is labeled as Chinese cabbage, at least for the time being.]

Formaldehyde exists as a colorless, transparent gas at room temperature and becomes a formalin solution when dissolved in water.

It is used in the manufacture of adhesives and preservatives, and was designated as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer under the World Health Organization in 2004.

The causal relationship between human exposure and cancer has been confirmed when formaldehyde is "inhaled" in a gaseous state.

[Kwon Soon-chan / Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital: The evidence for carcinogenicity is based on occupational inhalation exposure. It is linked to nasopharyngeal cancer and leukemia, particularly myeloid leukemia.]

While the carcinogenicity of ingesting formaldehyde has not yet been established, that does not mean it is safe.

Ingesting a high concentration of formalin all at once can cause burns to the mucous membranes of the mouth or esophagus, or lead to shock.

There are also reports that ingesting 30 ml of a 37% formalin solution can be fatal to an adult.

[Choi Yoon-ju / Senior Researcher at the Cancer Prevention Division of the National Cancer Center: (Adding it to food) itself is certainly problematic. However, as the cabbage roots are removed, washed in water, or boiled, the substance can evaporate through those processes, and the health impacts may vary.]

Unless it is determined how much formaldehyde was used in the problematic Chinese cabbage and whether it was exported to South Korea, domestic consumer anxiety is unlikely to subside easily.

(Video Editing: Jung Yong-hwa, Design: Kim Han-gil, VJ: Shin So-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.