Company launches AI-designed vegan turtle-flavored soup

It tastes like soup turtle so sought after, but there is no trace of shelled creatures in the bowl: Chilean plant-based food company, NotCorecreated this famous dish using artificial intelligence and in doing so, hopes to help raise awareness about the endangered reptile.

The soup’s development and launch were filmed for a documentary detailing the laboratory and industrial work that went into producing the product, interspersed with an explanation of the damage caused by hunting turtles for human consumption.

“We wanted to make an impact through artificial intelligence,” said Bernardo Moltedo, AI culinary science lead at NotCo.

“We have been working on this for several years. We always asked ourselves ‘why not’, which is why we ended up working to help endangered species, like turtle soup,” he said.

NotCo’s AI analyzed 300 thousand plants and made 260 quintillion of combinations until he found a five-protein blend that most closely resembled turtle meat.

For now, neither the plant-based turtle meat nor the soup are for sale, but the company plans to hold a virtual class to teach people how to make the soup.

With a presence in 12 countries, NotCo creates foods like burgers, milk, mayonnaise and 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 said it plans to go public in 2025.

Green turtles — traditionally used in turtle soup — are in 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 across Asia and Latin America, including China, Mexico, Peru, Malaysia and others.

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