Seoul, South Korea —
The owner of a two-star Michelin restaurant in South Korea has been spared a prison sentence in a highly publicized case involving a sorbet dessert topped with ants.
On September 16, the Seoul Western District Court sentenced the restaurant owner to a fine of 15 million won (approximately 1.1 million yen). The owner was identified only as a woman with the last name Kim, and the name of the restaurant was not released. The restaurant’s chef was not charged with any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors had demanded that the owner be sentenced to one year in prison and fined 20 million won (approximately $13,580), citing profits of 120 million won (approximately $81,470) over the past four years.
The problem isn’t that insects appeared on the menu.
Rather, the problem is South Korea’s delicate food laws that regulate which insects are allowed on the table.
Prosecutors told CNN in July that the restaurant in question had been serving dried ants imported from the United States and Thailand since 2021.
The restaurant reportedly served approximately 49,000 ants in 12,200 sorbet dishes.
According to the government, the problem was not just the presence of ants in the food. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said investigators “found that the restaurant’s ants contained heavy metal levels 55 times the maximum allowed for other edible insects.”
In handing down the sentence, the judge noted that the ants sold by the restaurant contained heavy metals above permitted levels, posing a potential health risk.
However, when deciding on the sentence, the judge took into consideration the fact that the amount of ants used appeared to be less than the amount calculated by the prosecution, and that Kim had no previous convictions.
Advocates in countries such as South Korea have increasingly argued that insects are as reliable a source of protein as other animal products. Insects are an effective way to combat climate change, given that they can be easily raised and harvested using fewer resources than traditional livestock.
Korean food does not frown upon insects. For example, bondezi is a traditional snack made from steamed silkworm pupa and served in paper cups by street vendors.
However, based on the country’s Food Sanitation Law, only 10 types of insects, including grasshoppers and silkworms, are permitted for human consumption. Raising other insects, such as ants, requires special approval from authorities.
Lawyers representing the restaurant said the chef used ants to add sourness to the dish, unaware that a recipe once used in the United States and Europe was illegal in South Korea, local media reported.
He also said the restaurant only served ants to about 60% of its customers and that the ants were clearly identified on the menu as part of the dish.
At least 2 billion people around the world already eat insects every day, according to a 2013 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
According to FAO, the most commonly eaten insect groups around the world are ants, beetles, bees, caterpillars, cicadas, crickets, dragonflies, flies, grasshoppers, leaf beetles, locusts, scale insects, termites, and wasps.
This trend has gained momentum in Europe and the US in recent years, with a report from Global Market Insights previously predicting that the US edible insect market will grow to nearly $80 million by 2024, with Europe also expected to grow.
Among those enthusiastically promoting edible insects in the West is New York City-based chef Joseph Yun, executive director of Brooklyn Bugs, an organization that wants to change diners’ perceptions of creepy crawlies. As a guest chef and advocate, Yun made tarantula tempura and caramel popcorn made with grasshoppers.
In Copenhagen, The Alchemist, which has two Michelin stars and currently ranks fifth on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, worked with scientists to ferment dairy products with the help of both live and frozen ants. The result was the popular “Antwich,” an ice cream made of ant-infused gel sandwiched between ant-shaped cookies.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in July 2026 and has been updated with additional information.
