Is Kimbap Really the Risk? What Korea's Salmonella Numbers Show
Salmonella pulled ahead of norovirus in 2024, becoming Korea's leading cause of food poisoning for the first time in three years. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's count for the year : 58 salmonella outbreaks, 32% of the national total, against 37 for norovirus. Outbreak numbers for salmonella were up 20% from the year before , while the patient count for it was down 25% over the same stretch. Salmonella infection usually means diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps within a day or two of eating, and it sends a share of patients to a hospital bed rather than just a rough afternoon at home. Kimbap is usually the first dish named when that story runs. Ask around r/KoreanFood about packing it for a hot-weather lunch and someone brings up a case from a few years back. Restaurants, not homes, carried most of the 2024 total. 154 of the 265 outbreaks and 2,593 of the 7,624 patients traced to food-service businesses, per the same Ministry statistics . Geography moved around a lot to...