Lab-grown ‘beef rice’ for a healthy planet

Exciting things are cooking, quite literally, in some research labs worldwide—offering a delectable menu of poultry, red meat and seafood. As the world tries to find alternatives to unsustainable industrial animal farms and overharvested seafood, lab-grown meat is emerging as a top contender. Touted to be sustainable and tasty, meat grown in petri dishes is slowly filling supermarket aisles, offering consumers a healthy and sustainable choice devoid of significant methane emissions, biodiversity loss or animal welfare concerns.  

In a recent study, Korean researchers reported creating a hybrid food where animal muscles and fat cells are grown inside rice grains. Healthy cells need a supporting framework—or scaffolding—to direct their growth into tissues and organs. Proteins such as gelatin, collagen and cellulose support cells in animals and plants. The researchers relied on the structure of the porous, gelatin-coated rice grains to support the animal cells placed in the grain’s cavities and feed them. The lab-grown ‘beef rice’ was ready to be cooked in about two weeks. 

Nutritionally, beef rice promises to have the goodness of rice and animal protein, with 8% more protein and 7% more fat than regular rice. It is firmer than rice when cooked but also breaks easily. With more muscle cells, beef rice also accumulated odour compounds ordinarily present in beef and almonds. On the other hand, with more fat cells, its odour had compounds seen in cream, coconut oil and butter.

The most striking advantage of beef rice is its reduced carbon footprint—6.27 kg of CO2 emitted for every 100 g of proteins compared to nearly 50 kg released to produce the same quantity of beef. Coupled with other advantages such as ease of growing in a lab and food safety, the researchers hope someday beef rice could be served as food during famine, military operations or space flight. Are you ready to give it a try?