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A South Korean court has fined the operator of one of Seoul’s most celebrated restaurants and its chief executive for serving a dessert topped with ants, an insect not approved for consumption under local food safety law.
The operator of Evett, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in the affluent Gangnam district, was fined 10m won (£5,400) and its chief executive 15m won, Newsis reported.
Prosecutors had sought a one-year prison term for the chief executive and a 20m wonfine for the company.
The judge at Seoul’s western district court, Lee Se-chang, said the offence was “by no means light”, citing the length of time the dishes had been sold for, the restaurant’s use of them to promote itself and tests that found heavy metals above permitted levels in the ants.
He said he had taken into account that the defendants admitted the offence, that the chief executive had no previous criminal record under the food safety law, that the number of ants served appeared lower than prosecutors had calculated and that the restaurant no longer used ants.
Ants are used as an ingredient in the US and Europe, and the restaurant appeared not to have realised they were not permitted in South Korea, he said.
Both sides have seven days to appeal. The Guardian contacted Evett for comment.
Evett was founded by the Australian chef Joseph Lidgerwood, who has appeared on the Netflix cooking competition Culinary Class Wars and is the restaurant’s public face. He was not a defendant and was not charged.
Under South Korean food safety law, the legal duties fall on the person registered as operating the business. Ginny Kim, Lidgerwood’s wife, is registered as the company’s chief executive and was named as a defendant, alongside the company that operates the restaurant.
Only 10 insect species are approved as food ingredients in South Korea, including grasshoppers, mealworms and silkworm pupae.
Businesses wishing to use an unapproved insect must obtain temporary approval from the ministry of food and drug safety, a step the restaurant did not take. Violating the law carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison or a 50m won fine.
The ministry launched its investigation after seeing mentions of the ant dishes in blog posts and social media.
Prosecutors said the restaurant imported dried ants from the US and Thailand by post from April 2021, and served three to five of them atop a sorbet made with sikhye, a sweet Korean rice drink, until January 2025.
They estimated the dessert was served to 12,274 customers, using 49,096 ants, for total revenue of about 120m won.
Lawyers disputed that figure in court, arguing that only about 60% of customers accepted the ant topping when it was offered.
The restaurant also noted that only a small number of dishes on their 15-course menu included ants, and that restaurants in countries including Denmark, the UK and Australia use ants as an ingredient.
Insect-eating is neither new nor unusual in South Korea. Beondegi, steamed silkworm pupae, has been sold from street carts for decades and remains a nostalgic popular snack for children.
