Probe Expanded to Chinese Kimchi: Will It Effectively Filter Them Out?

[Anchor]

As consumer anxiety grows over the controversy surrounding formaldehyde in Chinese cabbages, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has launched inspections not only on imported Chinese cabbages entering South Korea, but also on salted cabbage and kimchi. However, the catch is that formaldehyde is a substance that can also be detected in natural agricultural products. Therefore, it remains unclear whether these inspections will be able to properly weed out problematic cabbages or kimchi.

Reporter Park Ha-jeong has more.

[Reporter]

The controversy began with Chinese cabbages, but the anxiety has now spread to kimchi.

Last year alone, some 20,200 tons of Chinese cabbage were brought into the country, while imported Chinese kimchi reached 336,000 tons, which is 16 times that amount.

[Citizen: We cannot eat a meal at home without kimchi, but when we go out, we avoid eating kimchi. The seasoning paste itself is problematic. No matter how hard individuals and consumers try, it seems to be of no use.]

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that formaldehyde was not detected in eight shipments of imported Chinese cabbage declared over a two-day period, and that it has initiated inspections on salted cabbage and baechu kimchi as well.

The ministry added that it is collecting and testing kimchi produced by 59 Chinese manufacturers with a history of import.

Yet, problems will remain even if it is detected.

This is because formaldehyde is naturally present in agricultural products as well.

[Kwon Soon-chan / Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital: (In a natural state) it is said that 6 to 22 mg/kg can be detected in apples, and up to 60 mg/kg in pears. Because it is naturally generated inside our bodies and then quickly converted into a substance called formic acid and excreted in the process….]

According to a Ministry of Food and Drug Safety report from 2022, an analysis of 536 types of food currently distributed domestically showed that formaldehyde was detected in 93 percent of the items analyzed.

About 0.35 mg per kilogram was detected in cabbages.

Even if formaldehyde is found in Chinese kimchi or cabbage, it may not be easy to prove whether it was originally present in the natural cabbage or artificially contaminated.

Since formaldehyde is a substance that must not be added to food, clear human safety standards have not even been researched.

The ministry explained that it embarked on the formaldehyde inspections taking into account public concerns, and that if it is detected, it plans to take measures such as disposal or return by factoring in naturally occurring levels.

(Video Editing: Seeun, Design: Lee Ga-jin, Choi Jae-young, VJ: Shin So-young, Footage provided by: Ministry of Food and Drug Safety)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.