South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) announced that 13 products from these two companies were found to be non-compliant for containing ethyl acetate exceeding the national permitted levels.
Five products from Amorepacific’s health supplement brand Vitalbeautie were implicated.
These products are from Vitalbeautie’s Meta Green series, including Meta Green Gold Plus, Meta Green Slim, Meta Green Slim Plus, Meta Green Slim Up, and Meta Greens Booster Shot7 Days.
Ethyl acetate could be used as a flavour enhancer in foods such as ice cream, bread, and alcoholic beverages, as well as pharmaceuticals, due to its fruity taste when diluted.
It is also widely used as a solvent for obtaining green tea extracts, milk thistle extracts, marigold extracts, and tomato extracts etc.
The MFDS explained that while ethyl acetate is often used as a solvent extract during the manufacturing of health functional foods, the 13 aforementioned products were however reportedly made using green tea extracts free from ethyl acetate.
“Ethyl acetate was detected in health functional foods produced using green tea extracts that were reported as raw materials without ethyl acetate,” the MFDS said in a statement.
“When manufacturing green tea extract, water or ethyl alcohol and ethyl acetate can be used as extraction solvents, and if ethyl acetate is used, the specification is set to 50.0 mg/kg (ppm) or lower.
“In the case of this green tea extract, water or ethyl alcohol was used as the extraction solvent, and ethyl acetate should not be detected if it was not used,” it further explained.
In the case of Amorepacific Vitalbeautie’s Meta Green products, the amount of ethyl acetate detected was between 2.8 mg/kg (ppm) and 106.5 mg/kg (ppm).
The highest amount of 106.5 mg/kg (ppm) was detected in Meta Green Slim Up with a best by date of October 6, 2026.
The lowest amount of 2.8 mg/kg (ppm) was detected in Meta Greens Booster Shot7 Days with a best by date of September 15, 2025.
Aside from Amorepacific, Cosmax Bio was the other company flagged by the MFDS.
A total of eight products from Cosmax Bio were implicated, including MyFit S Blood Sugar & Pink Fit Diet (마이핏S 혈당&핑크핏 다이어트), Catechin & Banaba (카테킨&바나바), and Evidence-Based Diet Booster Made by Doctors (의사가 만든 근거기반 다이어트 부스터).
The highest amount of ethyl acetate was detected in a product known as Vitality Slim (활력슬림쏙) with a best by date of September 29, 2026, at 31.3 mg/kg (ppm).
The lowest amount - at 4.4 mg/kg (ppm) - was detected in MyFit S Blood Sugar & Pink Fit Diet with the best by date of May 6, 2026.
The MFDS said that the amount of ethyl acetate detected in these 13 products was not sufficient to cause harm, when compared to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) set by the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) / World Health Organization (WHO).
“It was determined that the level [of ethyl acetate detected in the 13 products] is approximately between 0.0002 per cent and 0.0104 per cent of the daily intake limit (25 mg/kg·bw/day), which is not sufficient to cause harm to humans.
“The acceptable daily intake (ADI) of ethyl acetate is 25 mg/kg·bw/day, meaning that a 60 kg adult can consume up to 1,500 mg daily without adverse effects," said the MFDS.
Still, the MFDS has called for the sales suspension of the 13 products and has also urged consumers to stop consumption and to return the products.
Amorepacific: To step up raw materials control
In response to queries from NutraIngredients-Asia, an Amorepacific spokeswoman said that “small amounts of ethyl acetate were mistakenly added” at the ingredients vendor’s manufacturing process.
The current incident has showed a lack of compliance with the company’s internal quality control principles, said the spokeswoman.
This is despite the fact that ethyl acetate occurs naturally in fermented foods such as wine, and the amount detected in Vitalbeautie’s products is approximately one-thousandth of the permissible daily intake for adults based on the WHO, and therefore safe to consume.
As such, the spokeswoman said that the company would step up its control process of raw materials at the procurement stage.
“Vitalbeautie had procured raw materials that do not use ethyl acetate. It was confirmed, however, that small amounts of ethyl acetate were mistakenly added during the manufacturing process at the ingredients vendor.
“Moving forward, Vitalbeauty will further strengthen the pre-evaluation and verification process from the raw materials procurement stage and establish more precise standards for ingredients to prevent such incidents from recurring,” she said.
