The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) announced that the export volume of makgeolli to China is expected to increase, as the Chinese government eliminates bacterial counts in fermented alcoholic beverages, reflecting the Korean comments to existing standards in China. Makgeolli, which is referred to in English as “Korean rice wine” is fermented alcoholic beverage made of rice.

For the past years, China applied uniformity standards of bacterial count (50cfu/ml) to all types of fermented alcoholic beverages and the Korean makgeolli, with its lactic acid bacteria, could not conform to this standard. For this, Korea has requested several times to the Chinese governments through the ‘KOREA-CHINA Food Standards Experts Committee’ to consider the characteristics of the Korean makgeolli and the China’s Ministry of Health revised its standards to be implemented from 1 Feb, 2013.

Meanwhile, the KFDA has been continuously working with the Health and Safety Attaché in China to receive approval of the use of Korean ginseng in food products in China to facilitate the trade of this commodity. Consequently, Korean ginseng received approval from the Chinese government for its use in foods on 29th Aug 2012.