Lee Ki-won, left, food tech professor at Seoul National University, and So-jung Trinity Park, director of The Trinity, at the World FoodTech Council’s headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of The Trinity
Technology is reshaping nearly every stage of how we eat — from distribution and selection to purchase and consumption.
Lunch arrives with a tap on a delivery app. Groceries appear at the door hours after an online order. Some consumers now pay using nothing more than their face, while others ask artificial intelligence (AI) assistants what to eat or which coffee beans suit their taste.
For Lee Ki-won, a food tech professor at Seoul National University (SNU), this is not a passing phase but a preview of where the global food industry is headed.
With an academic background in food science and biotechnology, he founded the FoodTech Department at SNU six years ago and runs the FoodTech Emergence Center on campus, where students are trained to build food tech businesses.
Food tech refers to technologies applied to food consumption and distribution, which Lee distinguishes from traditional food technology.
“Food technology has more to do with production, using engineering and science, often traditional science,” Lee told The Korea Times in an interview in Seoul, Feb. 9. “Food tech is about technologies involved in distributing and consuming food.”
The professor believes Korea is at the forefront of food tech globally, thanks to giants such as Samsung Electronics.
“People search for what to eat using artificial intelligence embedded in Samsung devices and cook with appliances Samsung makes. They also use Samsung devices and apps to monitor their health and take that information into account when deciding their next meals,” he explained.
The professor also predicts that robots powered by physical AI will soon dominate kitchen work. “The core of food tech is physical AI — who else will cook, deliver or manufacture food, if not AI robots?” he said.
gettyimagesbank
Building global platform
With the conviction that Korean food tech companies are among the world’s leaders, Lee, together with a group of like-minded people, founded the World FoodTech Council and launched the World FoodTech Forum in 2024. The second forum took place in Seoul in December last year.
“Education and various technologies were crucial in transforming a poor country like Korea into one where people now eat well,” the professor said. “In that sense, Korea could serve as a model for other countries or even become a platform for such initiatives. We’ve thought deeply about food issues and built numerous businesses around them. To spread these technologies or business models globally, we need a world-class forum.”
Last year’s forum was particularly significant because a law promoting Korea’s food tech industry took effect in the same month.
Lee envisions the forum as more than just a showcase of Korean technologies.
“The forum isn’t just about making money. The goal of the World FoodTech Forum is also to help address some of the problems the world is facing,” he said, adding that global population growth and environmental challenges require greater awareness of sustainable food consumption.
He also aspires for the forum to become a bigger global event, saying, “Asia needs an iconic event that the world can talk about and we believe food tech can be that.”
To highlight global perspectives, the 2025 forum invited former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, citing Germany’s stronger environmental awareness.
“Alternative meat failed in the U.S. but it’s selling in Germany,” he said. “There’s more consciousness around nature and consumption in Germany.”
Lee hopes the next edition, slated for December, will attract more international figures and elevate Korea as the leader in global food tech, setting international standards and trends.
“That will be ‘K-bap,'” he said, using the Korean word meaning “rice” or “meal” with the now-familiar K prefix. “The way Koreans enjoy food using their own devices and technologies will become a style.”
Artist Lee Wan gives a performance based on “Dots Transmitted Analog” and “Made in Korea: Water., Fire, Wind, Heir” at the World FoodTech Forum in Seoul on Dec. 4, 2025. Courtesy of The Trinity
Art meets food tech
Technology alone isn’t enough to drive the future of food. So-jung Trinity Park, director of The Trinity, believes that art has the power to take food tech even further, especially when paired with environmental, social and governance (ESG) values.
To realize this vision, Park joined forces with professor Lee and invited artist Lee Wan, who represented Korea at the 2017 Venice Biennale, to present a special exhibition and performance at the World FoodTech Forum.
Lee’s work invites viewers to reflect on the unseen labor and power structures behind something as simple as a bowl of rice.
“A single grain becomes a meal, a meal becomes happiness for a family, and that meal becomes part of a culture, part of a nation’s identity,” Park said.
Park, who served as artistic director for the project, said she wanted to amplify the forum’s core themes — the future direction of food tech and five key challenges — using the expressive tools of contemporary art.
“Rather than a typical vision declaration ceremony, we wanted to fuse modern art with new technologies to deliver a deeper message,” she told The Korea Times. “From food insecurity to power imbalances in the global food industry, artists are already exploring these urgent issues and this forum offers a platform to do so in new ways.”
Lee Wan’s 2024 contribution drew on his acclaimed “Made in” series, which delves into the cultivation and processing of food products across Asia. That year, he presented a cereal box–inspired installation and a millstone performance using salt he had harvested. In 2025, he returned with “Origins in a Single Grain, Visions for Tomorrow,” once again spotlighting crops like rice, sugar and palm oil, all grown through his own labor and reflecting the pressures of global capitalism.
So-jung Trinity Park, director of The Trinity, speaks at the World FoodTech Forum in Seoul, Dec. 4, 2025. Courtesy of The Trinity
He also staged an archery performance based on “Dots Transmitted Analog” and “Made in Korea: Water, Fire, Wind, Heir.” Instead of a conventional ribbon-cutting, dignitaries at the forum each made a dot symbolizing values such as humanity, life and environment, which Lee transformed into part of his live performance.
“At its core, the bow and arrow are ancient food technologies,” Park explained. “They enabled humans to hunt, survive and feed their communities. In that sense, archery is a symbol of our earliest food tech.”
The World FoodTech Forum also featured cutting-edge installations like the “Memorial Food ‘Lib’ (Life of Bite)” exhibition by DISCO Lab at SNU, where visitors interacted with brain-computer interfaces, neurogastronomy and liquid food printing technology to unlock their own flavor memories.
In Park’s view, this is how art can bridge ESG and innovation — not by simplifying complex messages but by deepening public engagement.
