In South Korea, the owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant could be facing both legal troubles and a hefty fine for serving an unconventional dish — ants atop sorbets. The potential penalty? A year behind bars and a financial sting of approximately $13,510.
While the Seoul eatery’s owner has confessed to the unusual culinary choice, ants are not on the list of insect species approved for human consumption under South Korea’s stringent Food Sanitation Act. According to the BBC, the law permits the consumption of ten different insect species, but ants aren’t among them.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stumbled upon this breach through discerning customers. Patrons took to social media and online reviews to express their surprise and curiosity about the ant-infused dish, sparking the investigation.
Interestingly, South Korean regulations embrace a diverse roster of insects for culinary use based on nutritional value. These include grasshoppers, mealworms, silkworm pupae, locusts, and two-spotted crickets, all deemed safe for dining.
However, prosecutors argue that the ants served contained alarmingly high levels of heavy metals, reportedly up to 55 times beyond the approved limit set for other edible insects, raising serious health concerns.
They accuse the restaurant of importing dried ants and using approximately 49,000 of them in dishes since 2021.
Defense attorneys disputed that figure, according to The Chosun Daily.
Ants were offered as an optional garnish for the sorbet, the restaurant owner’s defense argued, and only 60% of diners chose them over other options, including fermented vinegar and edible flowers, the South Korean newspaper reported.
The court is expected to render a verdict in September.
Globally, the edible insect market is expanding, as Fox News Digital previously reported.
The market is estimated to grow from $1.73 billion in 2025 to $13.23 billion by 2034, driven by growing interest in sustainable nutrition, resource efficiency and diversified protein sources, according to Fortune Business Insights.
Beetles dominated the insect-based food market in 2025, accounting for 33% market share, Persistence Market Research reported.
The yellow mealworm and lesser mealworm also topped the list, while crickets and grasshoppers were the fastest-growing insect segments.
A small study by researchers at the University of Beira Interior in Portugal recently found that people exposed to insect-based foods were more curious and receptive to them than expected.
It’s “exciting to see that consumers may be open to new abundant sources of nutrition,” Ashley Gearhardt, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, told Fox News Digital.
Several insect-based food products are already available to consumers in the U.S. Chirps Chips are tortilla-style chips made with cricket flour, while other companies market cricket protein powders and snack bars.
Jiminy’s grain-free cookies for dogs are made with crickets and grubs.