Seoul, KOREA ¶ Jan 30, 2012 (Whowired) -- The Korea Food Research Institute announced on January 30 that it had received a message from the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) that the 10 food items developed by a KFRI research team met the standards for spacecraft food with good reviews from the astronauts.

Korean foods for space travel had been given good reviews from the Mars-500 Project, the 2-year-long simulated Mars exploration, in terms of microbe safety, long-term non-perishability, and good taste. The three astronauts who traveled to the Mars for 120 days gave the foods an average of 4.4 out of the 1-to-5 scale, proving that Korean food tastes good and nutritious for everyone in the world.

The space foods included stirred-fried Kimchi, powdered red pepper paste, Bulgogi, Japchae, Bibimbab, pumpkin soup, fermented rice drink, green tea, red Ginseng tea, and curried rice. The items contained less salt and red pepper to take account of the western taste.

Sean Chung (press@whowired.com)