A restaurant that used ants to add “unique flavour” is facing possible charges of violating the Food Sanitation Act, as ants are not a type of insect deemed edible by South Korean law.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said on July 10 it has transferred the case of a local restaurant and its owner to prosecutors for the eatery’s use of imported dried ants in the dishes.
The restaurant owner was found to have brought in two types of ants, from the United States and Thailand, via an express mail service from April 2021 to November 2024.
The restaurant purportedly added three to five ants per plate for specific dishes sold there up to January 2025. An estimated 12,000 dishes were sold.
Recipes using ants, while not common, are not unheard of. But the Food Sanitation Act does not permit restaurants to use materials that are not recognised by law as food ingredients.
As of 2025, Korean law only permits 10 types of insects to be used as food ingredients, including grasshoppers, mealworms and silkworm pupae that is commonly sold as the street snack beondaegi.
Regardless of the effects or safety of ingested ants, it must be authorised by the ministry in accordance with the Food Sanitation Act and related decree to be used in restaurants. — The Korea Herald/ANN
