South Korea — Vegetables and Vegetable Products
South Korea received 79 FDA import refusals in Vegetables and Vegetable Products between 2024-Q1 and 2026-Q4. Volume peaked at 22 in 2025-Q3, with the trend falling year-on-year. The most-cited issues are poisonous or deleterious substance, Listeria monocytogenes, and refused establishment inspection. No trade baseline is published for this commodity from South Korea, so no per-$1B rate is shown here.
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Key figures
If you import vegetables and vegetable products from South Korea
- Hazard or paperwork
- Of 83 refusals in the last 3 years, 61 were hazard findings and 22 paperwork alone.
- Where refusals happen
- DWCI — West Coast (52); DNEI — Northeast (30); DSWI — Southwest, the Mexican land border (1).
- Riskiest months
- July, June, August, by refusals since 2020.
- Test for before shipping
- Listeria monocytogenes (39), insanitary plant (19), poisonous or deleterious substance (13), insanitary handling (7), pesticide residue (5).
- Paperwork to get right
- FSVP violation (19), no process filing (3), listing refusal (2).
FDA does not publish how many entries it examines, so no page can state a true probability of refusal; these are the figures that are published.
Quarterly refusals, last 12 quarters
Show the numbers
| Quarter | Refusals | Hazard | Paperwork |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-Q1 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 2024-Q2 | 18 | 6 | 12 |
| 2024-Q3 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 2024-Q4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025-Q1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025-Q2 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 2025-Q3 | 22 | 21 | 1 |
| 2025-Q4 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 2026-Q1 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2026-Q2 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| 2026-Q3 | 10 | 9 | 1 |
| 2026-Q4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
By commodity, last 156 weeks
| Commodity | Refusals | 1 refusal per | Per $1B US imports | Most-cited hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vegetables-Other | 80 | 144 t | 1,533 | Listeria monocytogenes |
| Pepper | 2 | — | — | refused establishment inspection |
| Leafy | 1 | — | — | no food-canning registration |
| All products with import tonnes on record | 82 | 182 t |
"1 refusal per X t": tonnes of the same product imported for every one, over the same 156 weeks. A dash means fewer than 5 in the window, or under 1,000 t a year imported, too few to rate; the total row pools every product that has import tonnes on record.
Recent refusals
- U47-2605538-5 SEAWEED, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DNEI. poisonous or deleterious substance
- U47-2605541-9 SEAWEED, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DNEI. poisonous or deleterious substance
- U47-2605787-8 SEAWEED, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DNEI. poisonous or deleterious substance
- U47-2604605-3 SEAWEED, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DNEI. poisonous or deleterious substance
- U47-2608728-9 PEPPER, HOT, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DWCI. refused establishment inspection
- ASW-0145164-9 SEAWEED, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DSWI. poisonous or deleterious substance
- DQ7-0304711-7 KONJAC, JUICE OR DRINK (ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE) Import division DWCI. no process filing
- ASW-0145158-1 SEAWEED, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DWCI. poisonous or deleterious substance
- HE8-0213283-8 ENOKITAKE MUSHROOMS, WHOLE (BUTTON) (FUNGI) Import division DWCI. Listeria monocytogenes
- HE8-0213214-3 ENOKITAKE MUSHROOMS, WHOLE (BUTTON) (FUNGI) Import division DWCI. Listeria monocytogenes
- HE8-0213327-3 ENOKITAKE MUSHROOMS, WHOLE (BUTTON) (FUNGI) Import division DWCI. poisonous or deleterious substanceListeria monocytogenes
- 9GH-0039565-5 SCALLIONS, GREEN ONIONS, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DNEI. pesticide residue
- B7S-2603225-1 LEAF & STEM VEGETABLES, N.E.C. Import division DWCI. pesticide residue
- HE8-0213110-3 ENOKITAKE MUSHROOMS, WHOLE (BUTTON) (FUNGI) Import division DWCI. Listeria monocytogenes
- ASW-0144999-9 SEAWEED, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DWCI. poisonous or deleterious substance
- U47-2601680-9 ENOKITAKE MUSHROOMS, WHOLE (BUTTON) (FUNGI) Import division DNEI. Listeria monocytogenes
- DF4-1640139-9 SEAWEED (LEAF & STEM VEGETABLE) Import division DNEI. FSVP violation
- 8TV-2702505-6 ROOT & TUBER VEGETABLE, JUICE OR DRINK, N.E.C. Import division DWCI. listing refusal
- EJA-5223830-2 PEPPER, HOT, DRIED OR PASTE Import division DWCI. listing refusal
- EJA-5223952-4 SOYBEANS (SEE INDUSTRY 37 FOR BEAN CURD), DRIED OR PASTE Import division DWCI. refused establishment inspection
Data and downloads
Download all 166 entries (CSV) — every refusal behind this page, with its import division, FDA product code, charges and whether it was a hazard finding or paperwork.
The file holds entries up to 2026-10-04. To get new ones for South Korea by email, watch South Korea.
South Korea country report since 2020 — every refusal by year, charge and import division →