Hybrid Rice: The Future of Sustainable Protein

Friday - February 16 2024, 18:58 UTC - 9 months ago

A team of Korean scientists has developed hybrid rice that is grown using beef muscle cells and fatty tissue. It has a light pink hue and a rich beefy umami flavor, and is packed with more carbohydrates, protein, and fat than normal rice. The hybrid rice is relatively easy to grow and surprisingly affordable, making it a potential solution to the urgent need for sustainable protein sources.

Here’s a type of fusion food you don’t see every day: fluffy, steamed grains of rice, chock-full of beef cells. It sounds Frankenstein. But the hybrid plant-animal concoction didn’t require any genetic engineering—just a hefty dose of creativity. Devised by Korean scientists, the avant-garde grains are like lab-grown meat with a dose of carbohydrates.

The hybrid rice includes grains grown with beef muscle cells and fatty tissue. Steamed together, the resulting bowl has a light pink hue and notes of cream, butter, coconut oil, and a rich beefy umami. The rice also packs a nutritional punch, with more carbohydrates, protein, and fat than normal rice. It’s like eating rice with a small bite of beef brisket. Compared to lab-grown meat, the hybrid rice is relatively easy to grow, taking less than a week to make a small batch.

It is also surprisingly affordable. One analysis showed the market price of hybrid rice with full production would be roughly a dollar per pound. All ingredients are edible and meet food safety guidelines in Korea.

Rice is a staple food in much of the world. Protein, however, isn’t. Hybrid rice could supply a dose of much-needed protein without raising more livestock. "Imagine obtaining all the nutrients we need from cell-cultured protein rice," said study author Sohyeon Park at Yonsei University in a press release.

The study is the latest entry into a burgeoning field of "future foods"—with lab-grown meat being a headliner—that seek to cut down carbon dioxide emissions while meeting soaring global demand for nutritious food.

"There has been a surge of interest over the past five years in developing alternatives to conventional meat with lower environmental impacts," said Dr. Neil Ward, an agri-food and climate specialist at the University of East Anglia who was not involved in the study. "This line of research holds promise for the development of healthier and more climate-friendly diets in future." .

Future Food .

Many of us share a love for a juicy steak or a glistening burger.

But raising livestock puts enormous pressure on the environment. Their digestion and manure produce significant greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change. They consume copious amounts of resources and land. With standards of living rising across many countries and an ever-increasing global population, demand for protein is rapidly growing.

How can we balance the need to feed a growing world with long-term sustainability? Here’s where "future foods" come in. Scientists have been cooking up all sorts of new-age recipes. Algae, cricket-derived proteins, and 3D-printed food are heading to a futuristic cookbook near you. Lab-grown chicken has already graced menus in upscale restaurants in Washington DC and San Francisco. Meat grown inside soy beans and other nuts has been approved in Singapore.

The problem with nut-based scaffolds, explained the team in their paper, is that they can trigger allergies. Rice, in contrast, has very few allergens. The grain grows rapidly and is a culinary staple for much of the world. While often viewed as a carbohydrate, rice also contains fats, proteins, and minerals such as calcium.

"Fats are important nutrients that may contribute to cardiovascular diseases. One-third of people who die are affected by cardiovascular disease," said the paper. "Cell culture meat sources have a high fat content, so it can’t replace the full intake, but when these are added to a plant-based diet, many people will be satisfied with their meals." .