- The owner of a twice-Michelin-starred restaurant in South Korea faces a potential one-year prison sentence and a £10,000 fine for violating local food sanitation laws.
- The restaurateur, identified as Mr G, admitted to using dried ants as a topping for sorbets, which were imported from the United States and Thailand.
- Prosecutors allege the restaurant served approximately 12,200 portions of ant sorbet over four years, potentially containing around 49,000 ants.
- The defence argued that ants were offered optionally, with only about 60 per cent of customers accepting them, and that the number of ants per serving was lower than claimed.
- South Korean law strictly bans ants as an edible insect, despite allowing a narrow list of 10 other insect types, and health authorities cautioned the ants used contained high levels of heavy metals.
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