Food and drug safety ministry designates tapentadol for import blocking

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it had designated narcotic tapentadol as an ingredient and substance subject to domestic import blocking after it was detected in TAWON LIAR, an overseas direct-purchase food product brought in by international mail.

The measure blocks products containing tapentadol from domestic entry and limits their domestic distribution through overseas direct purchases. An Incheon Airport customs laboratory found the substance in the product, which was mailed from France, and alerted the ministry.

An official at the Incheon Airport customs laboratory said TAWON LIAR had already been blocked after dexamethasone was detected, but its entry as a newly modified item containing a previously unidentified narcotic was confirmed for the first time.

Tapentadol is classified as a narcotic under the Narcotics Control Act and can cause life-threatening or fatal respiratory depression.

The designation and announcement were pursued by the ministry and customs authorities in collaboration to preemptively block narcotics from entering through foods bought directly from overseas. As of August, 313 ingredients and substances were designated and operated for domestic import blocking.

The agencies will broaden inspections of foods bought directly from overseas that are suspected of containing narcotics or other harmful substances. They will also provide consumers with purchase precautions and information on harmful products. The Overseas Direct Purchase Food Safety website's harmful-food block list provides product names, manufacturers, harmful ingredients and photos for 4,819 products in which harmful ingredients had been identified as of August.