No Franken-beef-rice for me, thank you
Tom KirkmanIndependent Project Manager
No Franken-Beef-Rice for me, thank you.
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“As the world’s population continues to grow, so too does the strain on the environment.
Not least among the stressors is food production, especially the vast swathes of land and water required for the cultivation of livestock.
It’s still in its infancy, but lab-cultured meat could be one means of easing the pressure – and Korean scientists have just found an innovative way to make it.
They’ve invented a new hybrid food, consisting of cells of bovine fat and muscle grown inside grains of rice.
The result resembles a strange combination of meat mince and rice, of pink, sticky grains. But according to a team led by biomolecular engineer Sohyeon Park of Yonsei University, the mash-up is rich in nutrition, and although a little labor-intensive to produce now, could one day ease food pressure.
“Imagine obtaining all the nutrients we need from cell-cultured protein rice,” Park says.
“Rice already has a high nutrient level, but adding cells from livestock can further boost it.”
… In biological systems, cells require a scaffolding that shapes tissue as it grows. In laboratory settings, scientists often use an artificial matrix for various tissues and organs.
Park and her colleagues thought being so porous, rice could serve the same function, acting as the scaffold on which lab-grown animal cells can build into tissue.
First, they coated grains of rice with food-grade fish gelatin and food enzymes to help the cells find purchase and maximize the amount of cellular material that clings to and grows on the rice.
Then they seeded the rice grains with cow muscle and fat stem cells, and let them grow in a petri dish for 9 to 11 days.
… What remains now is to refine the production process to reduce the time it takes to make hybrid rice.
The team may also experiment with maximizing the uptake of cellular material into the rice grains, which are remarkably receptive to the process. …”