On August 19, 2024, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) of the Republic of Korea released the Annual Report on Inspection of imported Food for 2023. The main contents are as follows:

(1) Food imports: In 2023, the total value of food imports from 165 countries/regions such as China, the United States, Japan, France and Italy was 34.825 billion US dollars, down 8.6%;

(2) Nonconformity: In 2023, a total of 1366 batches of nonconformity goods were detected, accounting for 0.17%, including 297 random sampling tests, and the nonconformity rate decreased by 0.005% compared with the previous year. From the analysis of food types, the high unqualified rate is health functional food, accounting for 0.60%; Agricultural and forestry products, 0.37%; Processed food, 0.21%;

(3) Causes of nonconformity: In 2023, out of a total of 1,366 nonconforming shipments, 407 (29.9%) violated individual standards, followed by pesticide residue standards (317), food additive use standards (194), microbiological standards (187), and hygiene standards (65);

(4) A total of 529 batches of unqualified goods were involved in China, of which 214 were disqualified due to violations of individual standards, followed by violations of pesticide residue standards (134) and violations of food additive use standards (61).