SANTIAGO (Reuters) – It tastes like sought-after turtle soup but there is no trace of shelled critters in the bowl: Chilean plant-based food firm NotCo recreated this famous dish using artificial intelligence and in doing so hopes to help raise awareness about the endangered reptile.
The design and rollout of the soup was filmed for a documentary that details the laboratory and industrial work that went into making the product, interspersed with an explanation of the harm caused by the hunting of turtles for human consumption.
“We wanted to generate an impact through artificial intelligence,” said Bernardo Moltedo, NotCo’s AI culinary science leader.
“We have been working on this for several years. We always ask ourselves ‘why not,’ that’s why we ended up working to help endangered species, as is the case with turtle soup,” he said.
NotCo’s AI analyzed 300,000 plants and made 260 quintillion combinations until it found a mix of five proteins that most closely resembled turtle meat.
For now, neither the plant-based turtle meat nor the soup are for sale but the company plans on holding a virtual class to teach people how to prepare the soup.
With a presence in 12 countries, NotCo creates foods such as hamburgers, milk, mayonnaise or ice cream from plants that simulate the taste and texture of traditional animal-based ingredients, using an AI program to help it decide what to use. The company has said it plans to go public in 2025.
Green turtles – traditionally used in turtle soup – are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of endangered species, with their numbers affected by pollution, extreme weather and fishing. The exploitation of these sea turtles is prohibited in most countries in the world.
However, turtle soup remains in high demand in countries throughout Asia and Latin America, including China, Mexico, Peru, Malaysia and others.
(Reporting by Juana Casas and Reuters TV, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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