A popular US food seasoning mix created for “yummifying the tops of bagels” is the subject of an intensifying crackdown in South Korea, where poppy seeds – one of its key ingredients – are banned.
Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning blend – a crunchy mix of sesame seeds, salt, dried garlic, dried onion and poppy seeds – has been on South Korea’s list of restricted foods since 2022, but travellers say it has been the subject of increased confiscation in airports in recent weeks.
Signs at Incheon international airport in Seoul single out the savoury contraband.
A user on X shared a photo of an airport sign that featured a picture of the product. The sign, in Korean, read: “We would like to inform you that the following products containing poppy seeds are restricted from being brought into the country as ‘Papaver Somniferum L,’ an ingredient of the poppy family designated as narcotic substance under South Korea’s narcotic drugs control law has been detected.”
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The Washington Post reported that agents at Incheon airport have been showing travellers pictures of the product and confiscating jars. One South Korean national, returning from her honeymoon in the US, said she was made to fill out a customs form declaring she had brought a narcotic item into the country after she was found carrying nuts coated with the bagel seasoning.
In recent years, Everything But the Bagel seasoning has spilled out of US supermarkets and gained a huge following around the world.
Influencers on social media show it sprinkled on everything from bagels to fried eggs, soups and roast salmon. Trader Joe’s also has a wide following in parts of east Asia – in Japan the grocery store’s canvas tote bag is a fashion symbol.
According to an airport spokesperson who spoke to CNN: “Seed products with narcotic substances have always been banned from being brought into Korea. Recently, the customs offices have been strengthening crackdown on narcotic related items.”
While poppy seeds do not contain opium, authorities fear they could be contaminated with opiates, a class of drugs that can relieve pain and cause drowsiness.
In February 2023, the US defence department advised service members against eating foods with poppy seeds lest they produce a “codeine positive urinalysis result” in drug tests.
According to the United States Anti-Doping Agency, “it may be possible to exceed the morphine threshold by eating foods with poppy seeds and USADA can’t predict how long morphine or morphine metabolites from poppy seeds will stay in your system”.
South Korea is not the only country to restrict poppy seeds – they are also prohibited in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Singapore.
