INTAKE CEO Knox Han, left, and the company's Research & Development chief David Kim pose at the company's office in central Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of INTAKE

Food-tech startup INTAKE has explored ways to substitute salmon, tuna and potentially other fish with seaweed sourced from Korean waters, a challenge that remains unresolved globally, according to the company's CEO Knox Han and R&D chief David Kim.

Han and Kim emphasized the project's significance in light of escalating threats to marine ecosystems from climate change and pollution. They anticipate increasing future demand for healthier, uncontaminated seafood.

"Our goal is to become the first Kosdaq-listed company specializing in nutritional substitutes," Han said at his company's office in Seoul.

"We expect we can surpass global top plant-based meat developers like America's Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods within three years."

INTAKE is leading a state-funded project that involves five universities and three food companies in the country to research fish substitutes. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries started funding the consortium with 6 billion won ($4.3 million) in May and it will continue until 2028.

In the joint project, INTAKE's role is to introduce edible ingredients that perfectly mimic the taste, mouthfeel, odor and color of salmon and tuna using proteins in seaweed or kelp. The pair refer to the nutritious substance as "blue protein." With the assistance of the other project participants, the ingredients' protein and polysaccharide then are modified to become a new material for mass production using a 3D printer.

"We already retain technologies to make plant-based or microbe-based meat substitutes," Kim said.

"This time, we're applying blue protein in seaweed to the technologies. We'll use a robotic arm with six axles for layering and gelation which is more advanced than the simple layer mounting. We'll also need new ink for the printing. We're now also talking to Israeli food-tech company Oshi to jointly introduce fish substitutes. It has showed an interest in applying Korean seaweed to its additive layering technology for the purpose."

In this May 2023 photo is a cooked dish of a fillet of salmon substitute developed by Oshi. The Israeli company is in talks with INTAKE to use Korean seaweed to jointly develop fish substitutes. Courtesy of INTAKE

Promising market

The ministry said upon funding INTAKE's project that the meat substitute market is now undergoing rigorous research worldwide as global food supply chains have been increasingly pressured by climate change, COVID-19, the spread of zoonotic diseases and companies gearing up for environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) management. And yet, it added that using seaweed to substitute fish has remained almost unprecedented. (Peas have been tried for the purpose, according to INTAKE.)

INTAKE's anticipated success not only writes history in the global nutrition substitute industry. It also opens doors to the high marketability of the abundant sources of seaweed in Korean waters.

"Korea has one of the highest volumes of seaweed in the world," Kim said. "And they just need sunlight to grow to about 1.8 meters. If people start consuming seaweed for fish substitute, Korean seaweed's added value will be huge."

Korean seaweed is now in high demand due to the rising global popularity of Korean foods including gimbap, a dried seaweed roll with steamed rice and various ingredients inside. The country's seaweed supply has been falling short of the soaring demand, leading to rising market prices.

They said that to boost the domestic supply and keep satisfying global consumers with quality, seaweed farming should take place on land instead of underwater. Pulmuone, a local major food company here which has joined the project's consortium, is charged with seaweed farming. The company, together with another Korean major food company Daesang, has already begun working on in-land seaweed farming, according to Kim.

"Underwater gives us just six months to grow seaweed in Korea, from October to April. And with rising sea temperature due to the climate change, the quality of some seaweed goes down," Han said.

"If we grow seaweed using smart farming (stacking multiple floors of growing beds), cultivation can run throughout the year and quality can be guaranteed. With the rising concerns for maritime pollution, the need for healthier seaweed will inevitably rise."

The pair don't expect Korea to be a lucrative market for fish substitutes. They rather target the global market.

"The current conditions not in favor of maritime fishing are increasingly drawing global interest in fish substitutes," Kim said. "Once the global nutrition substitute market moves past its fledgling phase, its demand will rise. And we'll supply the demand by expanding maritime ingredients to more species including microalgae. It'll allow us to lower market prices for fish substitutes to a moderate level."

In this undated photo, seaweed is being farmed in waters off Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. gettyimagesbank

Building up expertise

Having begun its nutrition substitute research in 2016, INTAKE has been actively studying and making sales in the emerging food industry. Its research projects, many of them funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, are largely divided into using either carbohydrates or proteins from plants and microbes.

Protein-based ingredients can substitute meat, eggs and fish, while carbohydrate-based ingredients replace sugar and flour. The company last month launched fruity pops and jellies using sugar substitute and, earlier this month, vegan snacks with protein boost, zero trans fats and zero cholesterol.

Among its ongoing projects is introducing a plant-based chicken substitute. The company in April began jointly developing the meat substitute with Genesis BBQ, one of the major fried chicken franchise companies here.

"I trusted in Genesis' deep frying knowhow. The company also has many chains in the U.S. which is our future market," Han said. "We began sampling test in May. We'll finally try a taste of this later this month."

Han and Kim took food engineering lectures together in Seoul National University before jointly launching the company in 2013. Now, besides fish substitutes, the duo also aim to replace edible sources with health risks like salt or gluten. Another ongoing project taken by the company is introducing gluten-free rice powder and applying it to bakery recipes.

"I believe that we've reached a level where if certain edible sources were proven to have deleterious effects on human health, we can come up with substitute ingredients to replicate their key nutritional benefits," Kim said.