Airports in South Korea have begun cracking down on a 2022 restriction of an American pantry favorite: Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel seasoning.
The savory seasoning blend, which contains sesame seeds, garlic, onion and sea salt flakes, has been under massive scrutiny lately due to one key ingredient: poppy seeds.
South Korea has deemed the popular item as contraband due to the seeds coming from pods that contain opium, and the plant is used to create drugs such as morphine and codeine.
While poppy seeds themselves do not contain any opium, the harvesting process could cause the item to be contaminated by the plant’s fluid, which does contain opiates.
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To prevent potentially contaminated poppy seeds from entering the country, South Korea has increased airport confiscations among its international travelers in recent weeks.
FOX Business reached out to Trader Joe's for comment, but they did not immediately respond.
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According to the country’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, South Korea began cracking down on the distribution of contaminated seeds around 2019 in the wake of a dozen American deaths.
While South Korea has banned the item, there have also been mixed messages about the Trader Joe’s product in the United States.
In 2023, the U.S. Defense Department advised service members to also avoid eating foods with the seasoning mix as consumers could test positive for codeine in a urine test.
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The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has also warned athletes to avoid eating the item several days prior to competitions as the "USADA can’t predict how long morphine or morphine metabolites from poppy seeds will stay in your system."
South Korea is not the only country to restrict poppy seeds. The controversial ingredient has also been prohibited in other countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
FOX Business' Bonny Chu contributed to this report.
