This might look like a fairly normal bowl of rice, but it’s not. This is the new hybrid rice that isn’t just a grain, it’s also technically meat. Researchers at Yonsei University in Korea have developed a new process of culturing lab grown cow fat and muscle cells inside grains of rice.
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00:00 [Music]
00:04 This might look like a fairly normal bowl of rice, but it's not.
00:07 This is a new hybrid rice that isn't just a grain, it's also technically meat.
00:12 Researchers at Yonsei University in Korea have developed a new process
00:16 of culturing lab-grown cow fat and muscle cells inside grains of rice.
00:21 And this is the result, a pinkish-hued rice that has a high fat and protein content.
00:26 The developers say the process is currently laborious,
00:29 but it could one day be refined, allowing humankind to meet its growing demand for food.
00:33 With researcher So-Yeon Park saying about it, quote,
00:36 "Imagine obtaining all of the nutrients we need from cell-cultured protein rice.
00:40 Rice already has a high nutrient level, but adding cells from livestock can further boost it."
00:45 The process involves coating rice grains with fish gelatin,
00:48 then siphoning bovine muscle and fat stem cells into them for around 9 to 11 days.
00:53 The end result is this, pink rice with 8% more protein and 7% more fat than traditional rice.
01:00 Even with its current manufacturing process,
01:02 this meat rice is actually still cheaper to make than traditional beef,
01:05 at only around 15% the cost.
01:08 It releases far fewer emissions as well,
01:10 releasing 8 times less CO2 for the same weight of finished product.
01:15 (upbeat music)
01:17 (upbeat music)