South Korean bid to merge meat and rice

South Korean scientists are injecting cultured beef cells into individual grains of rice, in a process they hope could revolutionise how the world eats.

Professor Hong Jin-kee posing with a bowl containing pink ‘meaty rice’ at the Yonsei University in Seoul. Picture: AFP

In a small laboratory in Seoul, South Korean scientists are injecting cultured beef cells into individual grains of rice, in a process they hope could revolutionise how the world eats.

From helping prevent famines to feeding astronauts in space, team leader and professor Hong Jin-kee believes his new so-called “meaty rice” could become an eco-friendly, ethical way for people to get protein.

No animals were harmed in the creation of the dish, which looks like a regular bowl of rice – albeit pink – but it gives off a faint buttery aroma, the result of being packed with beef muscle and fat cell culture. Using cultured meat, “we can obtain animal protein without the slaughter of livestock”, Professor Hong, of Seoul’s Yonsei University, said.

He chose rice for his research as the grain was already the top source of protein for people in Asia.

His process can be time-consuming: a rice grain is coated with fish gelatine to help with ­adherence, then individually injected with beef cells before being cultured in a petri dish for up to 11 days.

Rice possesses a “slightly ­porous structure”, he said, and once the beef cells have been ­injected into the rice, the grain ­offers “an ideal structure for cells to grow uniformly from the inside out”. His “meaty” rice contains 8 per cent more protein and 7 per cent more fat than regular rice.

“For those who are limited to … just one meal a day, a slight increase in (protein content), even by just a few per cent, becomes ­incredibly important,” he said.

South Korea has not yet ­approved any cultivated meat for consumption, but it is sold in Singapore and the US. Italy banned it last year citing a need to safeguard its livestock industry.

AFP