Unlocking the Future: How ‘M.S.G’ and ‘Aqua Pearl’ Teams Explored Food Tech Innovations in the UK

Samyang Round Square and Samyang Foods have just wrapped up an exciting UK study abroad program with the winners of their youth food tech competition, the ‘Round Square Prize.’

The company announced on the 10th that this incredible opportunity was awarded to the middle school team ‘M.S.G’ and high school team ‘Aqua Pearl,’ who clinched the top spots in last November’s competition. These bright young minds embarked on a six-day adventure from the 3rd to the 8th, diving headfirst into the cutting-edge world of global food tech. Their itinerary? A whirlwind tour of Oxford University and some of the UK’s most innovative food tech companies.

The crown jewel of the trip was undoubtedly the visit to Oxford University. Here, the students had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet with Professor Charles Spence, an Ig Nobel Prize winner and sensory research guru. Each team got to showcase their research ideas and received priceless feedback from Professor Spence and his team on how to fine-tune their experiments. But it wasn’t all work and no play – the students also got to tour the labs and network over meals, broadening their horizons in both academia and industry.

Next stop: London’s hottest food tech startups. The students got a front-row seat to the future of food, visiting game-changing companies like Arborea, which is revolutionizing protein production by extracting ultra-pure spirulina from CO2. They also checked out Hoxton Farms, where cultured animal fats are set to transform the meat industry, and Notpla, the eco-warriors creating packaging solutions from seaweed. Talk about a crash course in sustainable food innovation!

But it wasn’t all science and tech – these lucky students also got to soak up some serious culture. Their itinerary included stops at iconic British institutions like the British Museum, London’s Natural History Museum and Science Museum, and even Oxford University’s breathtaking Bodleian Library.

A Samyang Foods spokesperson gushed about the trip, saying, “We hope this eye-opening experience has inspired these young minds to think big about the future of food and sustainability. We’re committed to creating more opportunities like this to help our youth shine on the global stage.”