This Trader Joe’s seasoning is a hot item — but in South Korea, it’s illegal

It’s so good it should be illegal — unless it already is.

In the United States, Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning is a fan-favorite delicacy. But in South Korea, the item is actually illegal.

South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety includes the popular product on its list of “hazardous foods purchased overseas.”

What’s so illegal about this beloved grocery item? Poppy seeds.

Poppy seeds are an ingredient in the Everything But the Bagel seasoning, and in South Korea, they are classified as a narcotic — and possession of narcotics is punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of about $36,000.

Poppy seeds derive from a plant called Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy. “Somniferum” is Latin for “sleep-bringing,” insinuating that it might contain opiates.

But according to experts at the University of Florida, you can’t eat enough poppy seeds to get you high, and they “don’t have nearly enough opiates to intoxicate you.”

Gary Reisfield, an associate professor at UF’s psychiatry department and expert in substance use disorders, explained in a 2023 article that “poppy seeds themselves don’t contain opiates. But during harvesting, the seeds can become contaminated with opiates contained in the milky latex of the seed pod covering them.”

As for the rationale behind the laws to confiscate poppy seeds, Reisfield told the Washington Post that the concern “is the potential for the extraction of opioids from poppy seeds.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, poppy seed pods contain morphine and codeine, which are opioid medicines. While poppy seeds themselves don’t contain opiates, the seeds can become contaminated and coated with small amounts of opioids that were in the pod.

Some South Koreans have seen the savory seasoning confiscated at airports, and now they’re warning other fans of Trader Joe’s about potential repercussions.

Kang Joo-eun, 31, was planning on bringing the seasoning back home to South Korea after her honeymoon in New York but ultimately decided against it after reading about the ban on social media. However, she forgot to take out nuts she bought that were coated in Everything But the Bagel and was pulled aside for inspection.

“Agents walked around showing people a picture of Everything but the Bagel seasoning and took away the jars,” Kang told the Washington Post.

She had to fill out a customs form declaring that she brought narcotics back into the country, which she said was “all around an unpleasant experience.”

Officials at Seoul’s Incheon International Airport confirmed to the Washington Post that the product has been confiscated from travelers and “most travelers have been cooperative.”

The seasoning is often recommended on social media in South Korea as a gift from the United States for those traveling abroad, possibly as a result of the grocery store’s infamous tote bags becoming a fashion symbol in the region.

But the gift of choice was actually added to the list of restricted foods back in 2022.

Poppy seeds are not illegal just in South Korea. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Singapore are among the other places in which simply having the seed in possession is unlawful.

Meanwhile, Reisfield believes that the most common risk of eating something with poppy seeds is failing a drug test — and “sometimes as little as a single poppy seed bagel” can trigger a positive result.

In fact, the US Department of Defense even issued an official warning last year that consuming poppy seeds can result in a failed drug test.

But there is “no way to know for sure [if commercial poppy seeds have opioids] without sending your bagels out to a laboratory for testing,” Reisfield said.