■ Industry Status

Major domestic soy sauce manufacturers—such as Kao Ching Chuan, Wei Chuan, Kimlan, and Wanjiaxiang—produce traditionally brewed soy sauce, for which koji starter cultures are a critical component due to their stable enzymatic activity. Historically, these starter cultures have relied heavily on imports from Japan. Taiwan’s annual soy sauce production is approximately 2,000 tons, with an annual koji starter consumption of about 10 tons.

 

However, disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and increased international freight costs have exposed supply chain vulnerabilities. As a result, there is a strong push to develop domestic koji starter cultivation technologies, integrated with AI-based regulation, to prevent production shutdown risks arising from supply interruptions.

 

 

■ Features

This technology establishes a controlled-environment sensing platform for koji starter cultivation, integrating multi-sensor feedback systems. Advanced AI models, including CNN-LSTM architectures and unsupervised learning techniques, are applied to automatically predict, nonlinearly adjust, and precisely control cultivation parameters This approach overcomes inconsistencies caused by manual 

experience and ensures stable, high-quality koji production.

 

The system incorporates computer vision techniques, utilizing color space transformation and ROI-based feature learning to analyze color changes in koji starter images. By deeply learning from both image data and environmental parameters, the AI model can accurately predict enzymatic activity levels.

An intuitive user interface is provided to assist operators in determining the optimal koji harvesting time, significantly enhancing objectivity and accuracy in quality assessment.

 

 

■ Achievement

This project successfully developed and validated an AI-driven optimization system for koji starter production, delivering substantial industrial benefits. Through AI-based intelligent environmental control and adaptive parameter tuning, the prediction accuracy of koji enzymatic activity reached 96%, significantly stabilizing and enhancing starter culture quality.

 

The technology breaks through the limitations of traditional experience-based methods and effectively resolves the supply chain risks caused by reliance on imported Japanese koji. It establishes a self-sufficient domestic cultivation capability for Kao Ching Chuan and other Taiwanese soy sauce producers.

 

This innovation reduces procurement costs, shortens delivery uncertainty, and ensures that soy sauce quality consistently meets Grade A standards, thereby enhancing product competitiveness and corporate profitability. Looking forward, the technology can be extended to other fermentation industries, laying a foundation for smart agriculture an d food technology and supporting long-term sustainable development.

 

 

 

 

■ Contact Us

Material and Chemical Research Laboratories

Dept. of High Value Design(S100)

 

Shih-Hao Hua

Tel:049-2345247

E-mail:lvanHua@itri.org.tw