SEOUL, South Korea - The headline captured the latest cuisine controversy in this seafood-crazy country: "Can eating octopus heads be hazardous to your health?"
A favorite dish for generations of Koreans, octopus heads have long been associated with good nutrition, not to mention their reputed qualities as an aphrodisiac.
But a Seoul city government study last month determined that the delicacy contains dangerous levels of the heavy metal cadmium. The findings touched off what newspapers have dubbed "the octopus head war," pitting city health officials against irate fishermen protective of the $35 million industry.
In South Korea, octopus is perhaps second in popularity only to kimchi, the unofficial national dish. About 12 million of the invertebrates are sold annually.
Nakji, a dish featuring baby octopuses, head and all, is a popular snack at sporting events. Another dish, sannakji ("live octopus"), features squirming tentacles dipped in a sesame oil and salt sauce.
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Seoul officials found that the octopuses being sold at local markets contained nearly 15 times the government's permitted 2-milligram-per-kilogram level of cadmium, a carcinogen known to poison the liver and kidney if consumed in large enough amounts.
Officials advised consumers of octopus to remove all internal organs, ink and intestinal matter, a precaution that many people say would also remove most of the dish's taste.
Fishermen blasted officials after octopus prices plummeted. "The fishermen here are dumbfounded," said Im Hyun-ki, head of an octopus production association in South Jeolla province.
"The Seoul metropolitan government jumped the gun. Of course you have to test food for safety, but they seemed just too eager to make a case without properly thinking it through."
After conducting their own tests, officials from South Korea's Food and Drug Administration declared that it was safe to eat as many as two octopuses a day, heads and all.
Emboldened fishermen threatened to sue unless the Seoul government apologized. But city officials refused to back down.
Late last month, to mend fences with fishermen, officials held a "Seoul Nakji Day" to encourage consumers to eat more octopuses, which they said are "safe when internal organs are removed."