Would you try this beef and rice hybrid?

By Johnathan Subramanian

As the world’s population grows and the effects of climate change constantly shift the production capabilities of the existing agricultural industry, finding new and more efficient ways to produce food is crucial to feeding the future. In the past, many of these innovations involved genetically modifying existing crops to make them more nutrient-rich or drought-tolerant. But recently, researchers have utilized an entirely different strategy to improve the quality of one of the world’s most popular grains.

In February, a team of scientists from Yonsei University in South Korea announced that they had developed a new form of rice that boasts higher protein and fat levels than the standard by adding muscle and fat stem cells from cows into grains of rice and then letting them grow in a Petri dish.

Due to the internal structure of rice grains, the cells are able to easily grow within the rice, and adding gelatin to the Petri dishes with the grains allows the cells to adhere to the rice even better. This technique has also been tried with other foods like soybeans and nuts, but so far, it has worked best for rice. Also, due to the prevalence of soy and nut allergies and the rarity of rice allergies, it’s hoped that modified rice can be used on a larger scale than soy or nut alternatives.

This new rice is cooked just like traditional rice. Although beef rice is harder and has a more brittle texture than traditional rice, it reportedly still tastes more like rice than beef. Researchers have described it as tasting like rice but with a bit of the umami flavor from meat, or having a slightly nutty flavor.

In addition to the nutritional benefits of this modified rice, the use of “beef rice” as opposed to actual beef could bring climate benefits as well. Currently, the production of beef releases about 50 kilograms of carbon dioxide per 100 grams of protein, but this new rice could contain just as much protein while only releasing 6 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Unlike beef, which takes one to three years to cultivate, this hybrid rice only takes 10 additional days to develop. This is still much faster than beef, even when considering the 100 to 300 days needed to cultivate the rice in the first place. Also, because beef rice is priced at only two dollars per kilogram, it could likely compete commercially with regular beef.

While the current form of beef rice can only boast slight increases in protein and fat levels as compared to traditional rice (about eight percent more protein and seven percent more fat), researchers feel confident that it can be further refined to be more nutritionally rich. Because of the scientific and economic accessibility of beef rice, it is hoped that its development could eventually be brought to a larger scale, helping to nutritiously feed the world.