Gov't bans imported diet supplement TAWON LIAR after narcotic detected

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Customs Service have designated tapentadol, a narcotic painkiller, as a banned substance in imported foods after it was found in a diet product called TAWON LIAR brought into the country through international mail, the two agencies said.

The two agencies jointly pursued the move as a preemptive step to block narcotics from entering the country through direct overseas purchases of food products — a booming channel of e-commerce in which Korean consumers buy items directly from foreign retailers and have them shipped into the country.

Tapentadol works by inhibiting the reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin and can cause life-threatening or fatal respiratory depression; it is classified as a narcotic under Korea's Narcotics Control Act.

The substance was found by the Incheon International Airport Customs analysis office in a shipment of TAWON LIAR mailed from France.

The office reported the finding to the ministry, which designated tapentadol as a blocked ingredient to swiftly stop it from entering the country. As of this month, Korea maintains a list of 313 such banned raw materials and ingredients under its import-blocking system.

Products containing tapentadol will now be barred from entering Korea, including through direct overseas purchases, the agencies said.

TAWON LIAR had already been blocked from entering Korea after dexamethasone, a prescription steroid, was found in the product and it was added to the ministry's list of hazardous imported foods in December 2019.

The newly detected tapentadol had not previously been found in the product, confirming that a modified version containing a narcotic ingredient has since entered the country, officials said.

This marks the first confirmed case of TAWON LIAR being brought into the country in an altered form containing a previously undetected narcotic ingredient, even though the product was already subject to an import ban over the earlier steroid finding, according to an official at the Incheon airport customs analysis office.

The two agencies said they will continue expanding inspections of imported foods suspected of containing narcotics or other hazardous substances and will provide consumers with information on the risks of direct overseas food purchases. Further details are available on the ministry's website.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.