Astronauts staying at the International Space Station are set to get a taste of canned mackerel made by Japanese high school students.

Wakasa High School in Obama City, in the central Japanese prefecture of Fukui, has been trying to develop space food for 14 years.

The school's canned soy sauce-flavored mackerel was certified as space food by the Japanese space agency JAXA in 2018, after clearing tests for resistance to gravity at liftoff and pressure changes in space.

JAXA says the cans will be delivered to the station after a US private-sector spacecraft carrying Japanese astronaut Noguchi Soichi and other crewmembers lifts off on October 31 for a six-month stay there.

Kosaka Yasuyuki, a marine science teacher at the school, says he's overjoyed that the hopes of the students and graduates have materialized and are being sent off to space. He says he's looking forward to seeing the astronauts savor the taste.