The automotive industry led a surge in voluntary recalls across industries in Korea, in the wake of the massive recalls of Toyota in 2010, the nation’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, Korea saw a 70 percent increase in recalls from 495 in 2009 to 848 in 2010 and 826 in 2011. Voluntary recalls surged 43.9 percent.

Even though the food industry reported the most recalls last year with 247, the automobile industry exceeded other sectors for voluntary recalls.

Of the 179 recalls in the car industry, 160, or 88 percent, were voluntary recalls, largely prompted by the massive recalls of Toyota in 2010, the FTC said.

In 2009, the number of voluntary recalls within the industry stood at 74, but the number soared to 130 in 2010 and 160 in 2011.

“Since the Toyota case in 2010, the government has tightened surveillance and consumers have showed more interest in car safety. All of them were led to an increase in voluntary recalls within the industry,” said a FTC official.

In early 2010, Toyota had to recall more than 8.5 million vehicles globally due to unintended acceleration of its key models including the Camry.

Together with the Toyota case, the FTC chose last year’s recall of humidifier-sterilizers of six brands as the most disputed recalls.

The FTC said that about 90 percent of recalls were reported by four sectors following related laws.

The food industry topped the list with 274 cases (33.2 percent), followed the car sector with 179 (21.7 percent), the drug industry with 172 (20.8 percent) and other industrial products with 120 (14.5 percent).

By Lee Ji-yoon(jylee@heraldcorp.com)