How Korean Red Ginseng Is Graded?

Did you know Korean Red Ginseng is classified upon its quality?

Red ginseng is classified into four grades: heaven, earth, good, and cut.

A Heaven-grade product should not have cracks and scratches. The color of the textures must be maroon, brown, or dark brown. An Earth-grade product has cracks and scratches on less than a quarter of them. Earth-grade rootlet grading is the same as that of heaven-grade. There must be a diameter of ≤2.0 mm of whitening and pitting effecting less than a quarter. The earth-grade textures/colors are similar to heaven-grade. The Good grade standard is not limited to the body. Rootlets are unbalanced. Whitening of the body length is one third or less, and the pitting of the body length is one half or less. Like the other two grades, the Good-grade color is shiny, but the color is not uniform. The Cut-grade has no standard and grade. If you want more in-depth detail of grading ginseng, check out the Korea Ginseng Industry Act.

The standard of the primary classification is the appearance of the red ginseng. KGC classifies them by how perfectly the head, body, and legs are proportioned, and the external color of the red ginseng.
Red ginseng is primarily classified into three grades: heaven, earth, and good according to the appearance. Then, it is carefully selected by the density of the internal tissues, which is the most important factor in determining the quality of red ginseng.
Heaven grade is only 0.5% of the total red ginseng production, which makes it incredibly rare and special. Its dense inner tissues are the reason why the heaven grade is the most valuable for containing a large amount of active ingredients. Followed by heaven grade, remaining red ginsengs are classified by the earth, good, and cut grades upon the appearance and internal structure.

The quality of red ginseng is immensely influenced by climate conditions such as precipitation and temperature, as well as possible damage from insects, the quality of soil, and the cultivation technique during the cultivation process.