Korean Man Finds Bullets In His Bulgogi Made With US Costco Beef
On July 19th, 2024, a Korean man in his 50s, identified as a pseudonym of Kim Seung Chan in an exclusive report from Hankyoreh, found a hard foreign object in the bulgogi he cooked with the beef he purchased at the Costco Yangpyeong, the very first Costco location in Asia.
According to Kim, the object turned out to be two pieces of metal the size of a grain of rice.
Upon investigation, it was determined that the metal fragments were pieces of shotgun pellets—typically used to scare birds on US farms. The pellets had somehow ended up embedded in the beef and were distributed all the way to Korean Costco.
Hankyoreh reported the beef in question was imported from a farm in Kansas by “Company A,” a mid-sized food importer specializing in meat. While this company does have an inspection process (including testing for metal) when packing the imported meat into smaller packaging, the same process does not apply when the imported meat is simply distributed in bulk to retailers like Costco.
Kim shared that Costco Yangpyeong was not too enthusiastic to resolve the issue. They collected the metal pieces from Kim but did not provide any explanation for over a week. Only after Kim followed up was he able to learn that they were pellets, likely from a shotgun. According to Kim, Costco tried avoiding responsibility by directing him to contact the importer, and when he raised concerns about the possibility of the same meat being sold to other customers, Costco dismissed him.
Likewise, Costco also declined to respond to Hankyoreh. On the other hand, when contacted, the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety official stated, “We have sent an official inquiry to the U.S. Embassy to determine the cause of the shotgun pellets in the beef and will strengthen import inspections going forward.”
