Simple Planet to Establish Quality Standards for Cultivated Meat Ingredients Through Accredited Testing Verification
Selected for “Certification Support” in the Gyeongbuk Technopark Demonstration Project
Securing Foundational Data for Regulatory Approval
Simple Planet, a company specializing in cell-cultured food, announced that it has been selected for the “Food Tech Research Support Center Establishment (Cell-cultured Food) Demonstration and Commercialization Support Project” organized by Gyeongbuk Technopark Foundation. Through this selection, the company will receive full-scale support for certification, paving the way for the commercialization of cell-cultured food.
The certification support focuses on securing objective data on the safety and quality of cell-cultured food to enhance consumer trust. As standards and regulations related to cell-cultured food are still being established, the verified data secured by companies will serve as practical evidence for regulatory approval and market entry. To introduce cell-cultured foods to the market, proving their safety as food ingredients is the foremost hurdle. With the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety preparing a temporary standard and specification recognition process in 2024 for food ingredients using new technologies such as cell cultivation, securing scientific evidence on composition and safety has emerged as a prerequisite for commercialization.
Through this project, Simple Planet will evaluate the key components, hazardous substances, microorganisms, and storage characteristics of raw materials for cell-cultured food through certified testing institutions. The evaluation will comprehensively address all necessary categories required of food ingredients, from nutritional composition to the presence of hazardous substances and microbial contamination, as well as quality changes according to storage conditions. The intention is to ensure objectivity and reliability by having results validated by accredited testing institutions rather than by internal testing. Since cell-cultured food is still unfamiliar to consumers, the company believes that third-party verified data will serve as the starting point for building market trust. The evaluation results will be systematized as quality and safety data that can be utilized for product commercialization. The standardized quality criteria will later be used as benchmarks for raw material standardization and quality management in mass production, while the safety data will underpin domestic and international regulatory applications and serve as a basis for business-to-business transactions. The project is led by Heerim Kang, Senior Researcher at the Technical Innovation Research Department, Central Research Institute, Simple Planet Inc.
Senior Researcher Kang Heerim commented, “The goal of this project is to secure data that can serve as evidence for regulatory approval and for discussions on domestic and international partnerships. The data collected will also be used as quality management standards during the product launch process in the future.”
It is expected that having objectively verified data will lead to business-to-business partnerships with major food companies both domestically and internationally and expedite the approval of raw materials.
Founded in 2021, Simple Planet is a bio food tech company that has developed cell-cultured food ingredients for supplementing the taste and nutritional value of existing foods rather than producing final-form cultivated meat products. Earlier this year, the company was the only Korean firm selected for a partnership program jointly operated by the Bezos Earth Fund and the Earthshot Prize. In this project, the company was chosen for the certification support area as well as for the categories of material development and consumer awareness.
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In the area of material development, Simple Planet will work on developing edible material-based cell scaffolds and a universal suspension culture platform. In the field of consumer awareness, the company plans to conduct studies on Korean consumer acceptance and to develop acceptance strategies. The company aims to systematically secure all elements necessary for commercialization through simultaneous advancement of production technology, quality validation, and market research.
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