South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has decided to recall frozen chicken meats imported from the United States that were found to contain chemicals harmful to humans, it said Tuesday.

Those subject to recall are 368,751 kilograms of frozen chicken legs imported and distributed by Tyfoods Inc. and 92,541 kilograms of frozen chicken meats sold by another local importer Sase. The frozen chicken meats imported by the two Korean firms came from Amick Farms LLC in the U.S.

The ministry said it found between 0.0006 and 0.0033 milligram-per-kilogram of semicarbazide (SEM) in the frozen chicken meats distributed by the two importers. SEM is a type of nitrofurans, antibiotics used in animal farming and it has been prohibited in many countries due to potential health risks to humans.

There have not been any cases that chicken meats imported from countries other than the U.S. since last year contain SEM.

The ministry urged customers who have bought such products to return them. It has also decided to conduct a more thorough inspection on chicken meats from the U.S. over the next three months, starting last Friday. It will also look into all those in circulation, amounting 18,447 tons in total, and discard those found to be unfit, it added.

By Lee Duk-joo and Cho Jeehyun

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