Decoded Korea

When a cosmetic product is found to violate Korean cosmetic regulations, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) can order it off shelves. Every recall order ends up in a public registry, available through the government's open-data portal. We pulled the full registry through data.go.kr and read every case. It contains 30 active recall orders, and 18 of them came from just four companies. The count is small partly because of how the registry works. Each recall order stays visible for three years from the order date, so what we see is a rolling window rather than a lifetime tally. The earliest case dates to June 2023. The most recent is February 2026. Comparing 30 to other countries is tricky. EU RAPEX, for instance, lists products in market-surveillance categories that overlap with but do not match Korea's recall criteria. Four companies, 18 of 30 cases Four manufacturers account for more than half the registry: One OEM wet-wipe maker had eight separate wet-wipe pro...