[Jeong Il-du, CEO of Simple Planet, won the Grand Prize in the Food Tech Technology category at the 2023 Korea Food and Food Tech Awards.]
Bio food tech company SimplePlanet announced that it won the Grand Prize in the Food Tech Technology category at the ‘2023 Korea Food and Food Tech Awards’ with its cell-cultured meat technology.
The awards ceremony, sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, was held to discover companies with outstanding capabilities in the food tech sector. Food tech is a compound word of Food and Technology, referring to a new business that applies 4th industrial technologies to the food industry and related industries to create a more advanced form of industry and added value than before.
Judges included experts such as Professor Moon Jeong-hoon from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Seoul National University and Professor Lee Dong-min from the Department of Marine Biofood at Gangneung-Wonju National University. In addition, Vice President Song Jin-ho of Magna Investment, Venture Business Team Leader Eom In-yong of the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency, and Investment Management Director Kim Young-hyun of the Agricultural Policy Insurance Finance Institute participated, evaluating various aspects such as technological capability, execution ability, business feasibility, and organizational capacity.
SimplePlanet possesses a platform specialized in developing cell lines for mass production and is the only company in Korea to have 13 types of cell lines. It also succeeded in domesticating the ‘lactic acid bacteria-based serum-free edible culture medium’ that can replace fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is 100% imported.
Since being selected as an official partner of GFI Asia Pacific, a non-profit organization researching sustainable future food systems, in 2021, the company has been recognized for contributing to technological innovation such as transitioning to sustainable food production systems through alternative proteins.
Recently, SimplePlanet was selected for Foodtech500 by UK-based Foodforwarding, which selects global companies with food, technology, and sustainability, and won first place at the US startup pitching competition WKBC, demonstrating a successful precedent for Korean cultured meat companies entering overseas markets.
Jildu Jeong, CEO of SimplePlanet, said, “Cell culture technology is a new growth engine for the future, and we are growing honestly based on our technological capabilities,” adding, “We will contribute to food security by establishing a sustainable food supply chain through alternative protein and fat raw materials.”
Meanwhile, CEO Jildu Jeong of SimplePlanet, recognized for his technological capabilities both domestically and internationally, is actively working to create global alternative meat and cultured meat initiatives by participating as a speaker at the Singapore Cultured Meat CMT Global Conference and the Global Impact Chapter (GIC) Conference as a representative of Korea’s cell agriculture and cultured meat industry.
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