'Pig Hemostatic Agent' Found in School Lunch Ham... "If Not Discovered, Students Might Have Eaten It"

Animal Wound Treatment 'Allerspray' Contamination
Manufacturer Recalls Ham and Apologizes to School
Food Integrated Support Center "Conducting Full Investigation"

A high school in Chuncheon-si, Gangwon Province, reported that a foreign substance found in ham supplied as school meal ingredients was confirmed to be a pharmaceutical product containing an 'animal hemostatic agent,' prompting relevant authorities to launch an investigation.

According to Yonhap News on the 6th, nutrition teacher A at the school discovered the foreign substance inside the ham while cutting whole ham to prepare lunch on the 28th of last month. The foreign substance appeared as a white powdery lump, and teacher A took photos of it.

Foreign substance found in ham
Photo by Yonhap News

The ham was then vacuum-packed and stored frozen, and the supplier, Chuncheon Food Integrated Support Center (Food Center), recalled the product.

The problematic ham is a product supplied nationwide to schools and large supermarkets, produced by the well-known processed meat brand B and processed at the Gimje factory.

According to the manufacturer’s inspection, the foreign substance was identified as 'Allerspray,' a pharmaceutical used as a hemostatic agent during pig farming. The manufacturer estimated that the foreign substance was not removed during the slaughtering and raw meat processing stages, leading to its final contamination.

Brand B sent an apology letter to the school and took measures such as strengthening the foreign substance screening process and prohibiting the use of the drug at farms supplying raw meat.

However, the school principal criticized Brand B’s measures as insufficient and demanded stronger actions.

He stated, "If the nutrition teacher had not discovered the foreign substance, the students would have consumed it," and criticized, "We do not know how widely it was supplied to other kindergartens and elementary schools, not just our school." He also said, "There was no proper notification about whether the substance is harmful to humans," and added, "Management must be strengthened to prevent such incidents from happening again."

The Food Integrated Support Center, which supplied the product to the school, launched a full investigation after the contamination was revealed.

So far, it has been confirmed that the same ham was supplied to one elementary school.

The Food Integrated Support Center has suspended deliveries of the product for one month. Kang Cheong-ryong, director of the Food Center, said, "We are conducting a full investigation of deliveries over the past two months to identify which schools received the ham with the foreign substance, and we will recall the products as soon as they are confirmed."