Marugame Noodles, a popular Japanese udon chain that has expanded into Korea메이저놀이터, has apologized after a frog was found in one of its products.

On the 24th (local time), Marugame’s headquarters said that it “deeply apologizes for the great concern and inconvenience caused by the discovery of a live frog in a cup udon noodle purchased by a consumer,” according to local media such as Kyodo News.

The company is responding to a controversy that erupted on social media after a Japanese user posted on Feb. 22 that a live frog was found in a Marugame Cup Udon noodle.

A frog moving inside a cup udon noodle. /Image=Captured from Twitter account kaito09061

The controversial product is the “Spicy Tantan Salad Udon,” a cup udon noodle that the company has been selling exclusively for takeout since March 16, with cumulative sales exceeding 200,000 units in three days.

It was a store in Isahaya, Nagasaki that offered the product, but the frog was found to have been mixed in at the raw vegetable processing plant, not the store, according to the company.

The company plans to stop selling all products containing raw vegetables by May 25.

“From late May to June, frogs that have emerged from hibernation are entering their most active breeding season,” local BBS Sanin Broadcasting quoted experts as saying.

Meanwhile, Marugameze Noodles is known as a large chain with more than 1,000 stores around the world. Previously, the company operated up to 12 stores in South Korea, starting with the first store in Seoul in 2021, but the company closed all of its remaining stores in South Korea in 2019 due to poor performance due to the boycott of Japanese products in South Korea.