Overview
This English PDF excerpt from Korea’s Food Code Article 2 gives common standards and specifications for general foods. Its HMI-relevant section is the “Heavy Metal” subsection, which lists maximum residue limits for marine fish and shellfish and selected agricultural products.
Key numbers
Values are in mg/kg.
| Matrix | Contaminant | Maximum residue limit |
|---|---|---|
| Marine fish and shellfish including mollusca, live basis, except deep-sea fishes, tunas, and spearfishes | tHg | 0.5 |
| Deep-sea fishes, tunas, and spearfishes | MeHg | 1.0 |
| Marine fish and shellfish including mollusca, live basis | Pb | 0.5 |
| Shellfish including mollusca, live basis | tHg | 0.5 |
| Shellfish including mollusca, live basis | Pb | 2.0 |
| Shellfish including mollusca, live basis | Cd | 2.0 |
| Rice except brown rice | Pb | 0.2 |
| Corn | Pb | 0.2 |
| Soybean | Pb | 0.2 |
| Red bean | Pb | 0.2 |
| Sweet potato | Pb | 0.1 |
| Potato | Pb | 0.1 |
| Chinese cabbage | Pb | 0.3 |
| Spinach | Pb | 0.3 |
| Leek | Pb | 0.1 |
| Radish | Pb | 0.1 |
| Rice except brown rice | Cd | 0.2 |
| Corn | Cd | 0.1 |
| Soybean | Cd | 0.1 |
| Red bean | Cd | 0.1 |
| Sweet potato | Cd | 0.1 |
| Potato | Cd | 0.1 |
| Chinese cabbage | Cd | 0.2 |
| Spinach | Cd | 0.2 |
| Leek | Cd | 0.05 |
| Radish | Cd | 0.1 |
The same subsection states that provisional heavy-metal limits for dried fish, shellfish, and agricultural products apply with consideration of water-content changes during drying.
Methods (brief)
This is a regulatory food-code excerpt, not a sampling report. It provides limits and food-code hygiene/specification requirements. It does not report analytical recoveries, LODs, or occurrence sample values.
Implications
Certification: Korea-market comparator values only; no HMTc threshold inference.
Courses: Useful for teaching jurisdiction-specific distinctions between total mercury and methylmercury in seafood.
App: Supports Korea jurisdiction comparator context where product rows match the listed matrices.
Microbiome: No direct microbiome endpoint.
Wiki pages updated on ingest
- Korea Food Code - heavy-metal limits
- Fish — marine, predatory (tuna, swordfish, shark, king mackerel)
- Fish — marine, non-predatory (sardines, anchovies, salmon, cod)
- Shellfish (shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, oysters, mussels)
- Rice (white, brown, wild — bulk grain)
Verification notes
- Ingested from
raw/regulatoryon 2026-08-03. - Values were checked against the PDF text extraction twice during ingest.
Update history
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