A Korean convenience store snack or drink label has to declare nineteen named allergens in a dedicated box, list ingredients by weight in Hangul with zero romanization, and print its nutrition numbers in a different order than the panel you are used to reading at home. None of that comes up in a phrasebook, because ordering food and reading the fine print on a package you are already holding are two different skills. Here is what the label in front of you on a CU or GS25 shelf actually says, checked against Korea's current food labeling rules.
The nineteen allergens Korea names by law
South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety requires a dedicated allergen statement on packaged food, separate from the main ingredient list and printed in a box set off from the rest of the label by a contrasting background. Inside that box, the law currently names nineteen allergens.
| Allergen | Hangul | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Egg | 달걀 | Poultry eggs only |
| Milk | 우유 | |
| Buckwheat | 메밀 | |
| Peanut | 땅콩 | |
| Soybean | 대두 | |
| Wheat | 밀 | |
| Mackerel | 고등어 | |
| Crab | 게 | |
| Shrimp | 새우 | |
| Pork | 돼지고기 | |
| Peach | 복숭아 | |
| Tomato | 토마토 | |
| Sulfites | 아황산류 | Only above 10 mg per kg SO2 in the finished product |
| Walnut | 호두 | |
| Chicken | 닭고기 | |
| Beef | 쇠고기 | |
| Squid | 오징어 | |
| Shellfish | 조개류 | Covers oyster, abalone and mussel |
| Pine nut | 잣 |
Almond, cashew and kiwi are not on that list, so a product can legally skip them even if they are in it. In August 2026 the ministry proposed adding four more substances, with public comments taken through mid September. Whether that expansion was finalized is not settled yet, so the box on the shelf in front of you might already run longer than nineteen by the time you read this.
Where the box actually sits, and what it says
Look for the allergen box right next to the ingredient list, usually headed 알레르기 유발물질 (allergy causing substances) and set on a shaded background so it stands out from the rest of the print. Inside, a real label typically reads something close to 대두, 밀, 우유 함유, meaning contains soybean, wheat and milk. 함유 is the one word worth recognizing on sight: it means contains, and it is how every allergen statement on a Korean package ends.
The main ingredient list itself sits under its own header, 원재료명, and runs in descending order by weight exactly the way a Japanese label does, heaviest ingredient first, in Hangul with no romanized reading anywhere on the pack. A camera translator reading the whole panel in place turns that dense block into English in one pass, allergen box included, instead of you keying one word at a time into a dictionary app while a line forms behind you.
What the label does not promise
Korea has no blanket "may contain traces" rule. A cross contact warning, something close to 이 제품은 밀을 사용한 제품과 같은 제조시설에서 생산되었습니다 (this product was made in a facility that also handles wheat), shows up on some packages as a courtesy, never as a legal requirement. Its absence tells you nothing. If a shared facility matters to you and you do not see a line about it, that is a question for the cashier, not a reason to assume the product is clean.
Reading the nutrition panel without assuming it matches home
A Korean nutrition panel, 영양정보, lists sodium first, then carbohydrate and sugar together, then fat split into trans and saturated, then cholesterol and protein last. A US panel leads with calories and fat before it ever reaches sodium. Match the wrong line to the wrong number and a quick glance gives you the opposite read of what the pack says. One more quirk worth knowing: Korean rules let a measured sodium, sugar or calorie value run up to 120 percent of what is printed, so the number on the shelf is a ceiling with a little room above it, not a lab-exact guarantee.
Reading the shelf, step by step
- Find 원재료명 first, usually on the back or side panel, and read down the list, heaviest ingredient at the top.
- Locate the shaded allergen box near it, headed 알레르기 유발물질, and read straight through to 함유 at the end.
- Check for a voluntary shared facility line, a short sentence separate from the main ingredient block. It is never guaranteed.
- Read 영양정보 in its own order: sodium, carbohydrate and sugar, fat, cholesterol, protein, not the order a US label trained you to expect.
- Cross check against your own allergy list if you are avoiding almond, cashew or kiwi specifically. The box owes you nothing beyond the nineteen named items.
Back to reading without a shelf in front of you
The same obstacle, dense Hangul with no romanization and no picture to lean on, is exactly what makes a raw Korean webtoon hard to pick up at first too. If a convenience store label was your first real fight with unglossed Korean on this trip, the Korean phrases every traveler actually needs covers the rest of the trip, and Korean menu translator handles the next wall you will hit, the restaurant table. Manga shares the same in-place translation problem on the page instead of the shelf: the full method for translating manga bubble by bubble replaces the original text rather than captioning underneath it, and the comparison of manga translator apps covers which camera tools actually hold up on dense small print, labels included, not just clean menus.