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In a small lab in Seoul, a team of South Korean scientists is injecting cultured beef cells into individual grains of rice, a process they hope will revolutionize the way the world eats. From preventing famine to feeding astronauts in space, team leader and professor Hong Jin-ki believes their new so-called “meaty rice” could become an eco-friendly, ethical way for people to get protein.
No animals were harmed in the making of the dish, which looks just like a regular bowl of rice – albeit pink in colour – but has a mild buttery aroma, the result of being packed with beef muscle and fat cell cultures. Hong, from Yonsei University in Seoul, told AFP that by using cultured meat, “we can get animal protein without killing animals.”
Ethical issues associated with industrial livestock farming, as well as environmental concerns associated with greenhouse gas emissions from animal husbandry, have led companies around the world to seek to commercialize meat alternatives, such as plant-based or cultured meat. Hong, who has a background in organoids and biomedical science, chose rice for her research because the grain was already the top source of protein for people in Asia.
Their process can currently be time-consuming: A regular rice grain is coated with fish gelatin to help adherence, then beef cells are individually injected before being cultured in a petri dish for up to 11 days. Rice has a “slightly porous structure,” Hong said, and once the beef cells are injected into the rice, the grain “provides a perfect structure for the cells to grow evenly from the inside to the outside.”
carbon footprint
Hong’s “meaty” rice has eight percent more protein and seven percent more fat than regular rice. Hong and his team are still working on how to scale up the process, he said, but he hopes the rice they created will be approved as a relief food for emergencies in two African countries. “For people who are used to eating just one meal a day, (a small increase in) protein intake, even by a few percent, becomes incredibly significant,” he said.
South Korea has not yet approved any cultured meat for consumption, but it announced plans to put millions of dollars into a “foodtech” fund in 2022, while separately identifying cell-cultured meat as a priority research area. Cultured meat is sold in Singapore and the United States, but Italy banned it last year, citing the need to protect its livestock industry. Some scholars say potential ethical concerns with cultured meat involve the source of the initial animal cells.
“It is hard to be certain about the safety of the serum used in the culture media and the antibiotics and hormones added during the culturing process,” Choi Eun-je, a former emeritus professor at Seoul National University, wrote in a column on the website Chuksan News.
According to Hong’s team, their hybrid rice method substantially reduces the carbon footprint of protein by eliminating the need to breed and raise animals. They estimate that for every 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of protein produced, it releases 6.27 kilograms (13.8 pounds) of carbon dioxide — eight times less than conventional beef production.
Would you eat it?
Neil Stephens, lecturer on technology and society at the University of Birmingham, said cultured meat has long been “presented as a climate solution compared to traditional livestock”. But the sector faces challenges such as the need for “large-scale and cheap production, with low energy requirements and environmentally friendly inputs,” he told AFP.
“‘Meaty’ rice could have an advantage over some other cultured meat products”, he said, because it is a hybrid product “made by combining animal cells with plant material – rice – which makes it cheaper and less energy intensive.” “Despite this, it would still need to prove its environmental credentials at scale – and convince people to eat it. Both could be a challenge.”
Global consulting firm AT Kearney predicts that by 2040, only 40 per cent of global meat consumption will come from traditional sources – and the entire industry will be turned upside down. “Products such as milk, egg whites, gelatin and fish could be made using similar technology,” it said in a 2019 report. Hong firmly believes that biotechnology can change the way humans consume food for the better.
For example, he said, an older person suffering from sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) could eat lab-grown meat made from only muscle cells, not fat, to alleviate his specific condition. He said the world is on the cusp of an era where “more biological information is becoming available and we need to carefully control what we eat”.
He said this could mean that in the future, an AI-powered kitchen would be able to assess a person’s health through blood analysis, and then instruct a robot to prepare the most appropriate breakfast.
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