Leading Future New Industry Food Tech! ... Pohang City Drives the Development of K-Kitchen

POSTECH Operates Food Tech Contract Department

Establishing a Differentiated Food Tech Innovation Cluster

Pohang City is making every effort to foster related industries to create an innovative ecosystem for the food service industry based on food tech, which is gaining attention as a future new industry.

The launch ceremony of the K-Kitchen Promotion Committee held at Pohang City Hall on April 27.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the food tech industry growth rate from 2017 to 2020 averaged 31.4% annually, significantly higher than the overall food industry growth rate of 4.8%, and is expected to become a new avenue for future new industries.

Accordingly, Pohang City is also making various efforts to take the lead in the food tech industry, which is growing as a new future food source.

First, in January, the Food Tech Policy Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs recruited universities to operate food tech contract departments for training specialized personnel in the food tech field. Pohang City, in cooperation with related organizations such as POSTECH and Gyeongbuk Province, achieved the great success of having POSTECH’s Department of IT Convergence Engineering finally selected as a university to operate the food tech contract department.

The food tech contract department is a master's program designed to train specialized personnel tailored to the food tech industry, providing up to 280 million KRW per school, including 65% of tuition fees for trainees and 100% of department operation costs. POSTECH plans to recruit students for the food tech contract department starting in September and begin specialized personnel training from 2024.

Along with this, the city launched the ‘K-Kitchen Promotion Committee’ in April to serve as a central body for fostering the food tech industry. The K-Kitchen Promotion Committee is a collaborative body among industry, academia, research, and government to nurture the food tech new industry, with co-chairpersons appointed from Pohang City, Gyeongbuk Province, POSTECH, and the Korea Food Tech Association. Academics, experts, companies, and related institution representatives participate as committee members.

In the future, the Promotion Committee plans to establish four working groups under its umbrella to identify support tasks based on corporate demand and to promote the establishment of food tech technology standards, playing an important role in creating a food tech new industry ecosystem.

Furthermore, Pohang City, together with related organizations such as Gyeongbuk Province, will operate a Food Tech Research Support Center starting in the second half of this year. The Food Tech Research Support Center is a project jointly invested by Pohang City, Gyeongbuk Province, and private companies, proactively promoting technology development for the commercialization of smart kitchens and supporting startups, aiming to foster an ecosystem for the development of the local food tech industry.

Additionally, starting in the second half of this year, Pohang City plans to introduce a food tech automated meal service system to protect the safety and health of workers in meal service facilities such as schools managing hundreds of meal plans. Workers in meal service facilities tend to have higher incidence rates of respiratory diseases and musculoskeletal disorders compared to other occupations due to the nature of their work.

In response, the city plans to collaborate with the local robotics company Neuromeka to secure national R&D project budgets and replace labor-intensive tasks such as transportation and cooking with machines, thereby enhancing safety in meal service facilities.

Moreover, Pohang City plans to focus on fostering the food tech industry through the establishment of the Food Tech Square Convergence Support Center for creating a food tech innovation cluster and designating an innovation special zone by concentrating food tech-related industry, government, and academia.

Currently, the Food Tech Square Convergence Support Center is undergoing a feasibility study, and efforts are being made to secure national funding in cooperation with related organizations such as Gyeongbuk Province and the Korea Food Tech Association.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “We will lead regional economic revitalization by creating jobs and attracting companies through fostering the food tech industry,” and added, “We will do our best to proactively build a food tech industry ecosystem to secure Pohang’s future food sources.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.