Simple Planet to Develop Cell Ag Technologies Under South Korea’s National Project for Food Tech – vegconomist

Cultivated meat ingredients developer Simple Planet announces that it has been selected to participate in an ₩11 billion national project launched by South Korea’s government to expand the food tech industry.

The national project involves various individual projects led by different governmental institutions, including the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (IPET), the Korea Agriculture Technology Promotion Agency (KOAT), and the Korea Institute of Marine Science and Technology Promotion (KIMST).  

As Simple Planet explained to Cultivated X, the company will be developing cell ag technologies for different purposes:

• The first project under the umbrella of KOAT’s agri-food venture nurturing program will focus on cultivated foods to replace animal-derived ingredients.
• A second activity involves establishing pluripotent stem cell lines and differentiation and developing mass culture technology for cultivated meat in collaboration with Hanyang University and Seoul National University. IPET’s high-value-added food development program supports this project. 
• The third project includes researching and developing technologies to cultivate high-value seafood products. The startup will work in collaboration with various universities, the food company Hy, and the Korea Basic Science Institute. It is supported by KIMST.

After developing the tech, Simple Planet plans to produce a cultivated fish cake. In addition, the team is considering seafood powder for the future. “With KIMST’s project, Simple Planet will focus on high-value marine species such as eel, halibut, rainbow trout, bluefin tuna, squid, pollack, and lobster,” Simple Planet told us. 

Expanding cultivated meat

Simple Planet, established in Seoul in 2021, develops high-protein cultivated meat powder and cultivated unsaturated fat. Its products are said to enhance the taste and nutritional value of food products. The startup raised $6 million in February, bringing its total funding to $7.5 million.

Currently, Simple Planet operates a facility where it produces at-scale raw materials leveraging acquisition technology and its suspended cell development platform. It claims to have established 13 different cell lines from cattle, pigs, chickens, ducks, and fish and an edible serum-free culture medium to reduce production costs and ensure safety.

With the new capital, Simple Planet plans to establish a GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) production facility in Seoul within this year. Another goal is to expand to global markets, including the US, and gain regulatory approvals.

Food and functional ingredients

In addition, the company plans to seek novel foods approval to commercialise its cultivated meat ingredients directly to consumers under the Balboa Kitchen brand.

Dominic Jeong, CEO of Simple Planet, comments, “Our cell-cultured food ingredients can produce diverse customized ingredients including food and functional ingredients with excellent production efficiency, enabling stable food supply.”