A Raid on a Michelin-Starred Restaurant... The Twist Behind the "Black Particles" in the Fridge

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A famous restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul, that used ants as an ingredient has been fined. Ants are not approved for consumption in South Korea, but this restaurant has been serving dishes topped with ants to customers for nearly four years.

Reporter Kim Minjun has the details.

[Reporter]

In July of last year, inspection teams from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety raided the kitchen of a famous two-star Michelin restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul.

Containers filled with black particles were discovered inside the refrigerator. They were ants, served as toppings for certain dishes such as sorbet 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 once? (They aren't cooked. They are just frozen.)]

The restaurant had gained popularity online for its ant toppings. Following the crackdown last year, it was sent 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 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, serving them as toppings on certain dishes.

Prosecutors sought a one-year prison sentence for the restaurant's representative, identified as A, but 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 standards were detected in the ants, the culpability is not light," while adding, "However, we took into account that the defendants admitted to the crime, are first-time offenders, and appear to have been unaware that ants were an unauthorized food ingredient since they are used as food items overseas."

(Video reporting: Hangyul | Video editing: Seeun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.