21 February 2026
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) has recently introduced several new strategies and regulatory updates, extending into 2025 and 2026, aimed at strengthening egg traceability and preventing contamination. The MFDS has announced a strategic shift toward managing egg safety further upstream. Rather than relying primarily on post-production grading and retail-level testing, the government is redirecting its safety protocols, inspections, and contamination control measures to laying hen farms in order to detect and mitigate risks at the source.
Historically, South Korean regulations have focused predominantly on Salmonella Enteritidis. The MFDS has amended the Food Code to formally expand the existing zero-tolerance standard for raw eggs to explicitly include Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Thompson, reflecting the need to address multiple high-risk serovars concurrently.
In September 2018, a large-scale foodborne outbreak occurred across multiple schools in South Korea. More than 3,500 individuals, primarily students, were affected in 12 cities and provinces, rendering it one of the largest single foodborne incidents in the country’s history. Epidemiological investigations, supported by whole-genome multilocus sequence typing (wgMLST), traced the outbreak to a specific brand of chocolate cake supplied to school cafeterias. The contamination source was liquid egg white contaminated with Salmonella Thompson, which had been used in the production of the cake’s cream filling.
