"How Can We Eat This?" Consumer Anxiety Grows Over Chinese Kimchi

[Anchor]

As cabbage soaked in a Class 1 carcinogen was distributed in China, anxiety among domestic consumers regarding Chinese kimchi is also spreading.

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

[Reporter]

At a supermarket in Seoul, kimchi is on sale at a super-special price, manufactured in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China.

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

[Importer Official: It is indeed Chinese 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 for the purpose of maintaining freshness.

[Kim Tae-young: I am going to try not to eat kimchi at restaurants at all. You can pretty much assume that most kimchi in restaurants is Chinese.]

[Lee Eun-young: I think I won't buy it, at least for a while, if the origin is labeled as Chinese cabbage.]

Formaldehyde exists as a colorless and 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 Class 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. Among 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.

If a high concentration of formalin is ingested at once, it can cause burns or shock to the mucous membranes of the mouth or esophagus.

There are also reports that an adult can die when ingesting 30 ml of a 37% concentration formalin solution.

[Choi Yoon-ju / Senior Researcher at the Cancer Prevention Division, National Cancer Center: (Adding it to food) itself is problematic, I would say. However, through processes such as removing the roots of the cabbage, washing it in water, or boiling it, it can evaporate, and the health impacts may vary.]

Until it is figured out how much formaldehyde was used in the problematic Chinese cabbage and whether it was exported to South Korea, domestic consumer anxiety is not likely 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.