Professor Hong Jin-kee speaks during an interview with The Korea Herald at his office in Seoul on March 12. — Photo The Korea Herald/ANN

SEOUL — A Korean research team has recently unveiled a bowl of pink rice, a new lab-made hybrid rice, which they say could offer a cheaper and more sustainable source of protein not just for those on a vegan diet, but also for countries still reeling from food crises.

“The lab-made beef rice could hit supermarket shelves sooner than you think if regulatory issues are cleared,” Hong Jin-kee, a chemical and biomolecular engineering professor at Yonsei University and the leader of the research team, told The Korea Herald during an interview at his office in Seoul last Tuesday.

In the February issue of the Matter journal, Hong and his colleagues published their research on the so-called "meaty rice," which was created by growing animal muscle and fat cells inside rice grains for about 11 days. According to the study, the rice, which is colored pink, has 8 per cent more protein and 7 per cent more fat than regular rice.

Since the publication of the research late last month, Hong has received numerous inquiries from companies, research institutions and governments around the world, he said. “I was fascinated and touched by the fact that so many parties across the world have shown their interest (in our research) for different reasons,” Hong said.

“For some countries, a lab-made meat product is a potential vegan (protein) substitute, but for others, it can help them solve their food crises,” he added.

Hong and his research team’s discovery has drawn much interest thanks to its method of producing lab-made meat in large quantities but at cheaper prices, presenting an opportunity for countries to tackle a diverse set of issues, including food crises, human-caused methane emissions and the killing of animals for meat consumption.

“Other edible scaffolds that were previously used to culture protein and fat cells tend to break down when they are free-floating in the culture medium. But, rice grains do not, providing an optimised environment to culture cells,” Hong noted.

The scope for mass production also keeps the price of the product low, which Hong thinks is crucial for making lab-made meat products accessible to as many people as possible.

The team is also working on using cells from different animals such as pigs, chickens and fish.

“Different animals mean different nutritional benefits. The flavours of the meat rice will be largely the same,” he added.

Collecting animal cells, while minimising damage to animals, is another task that Hong and his team will have to solve in the future. “We are still developing technologies that will allow a more stable supply and efficient culture of animal cells,” Hong said.

While solving such technological issues, Hong said he is trying to find a way to improve the public’s perception of hybrid food products and dispel vague concerns over the meat produced in lab settings.

“We do not know much about the meat that we consume. We may know where it comes from, but we do not know how (the animals are) farmed and killed for food. We have little access to such information,” he said.

Hong stressed that the biggest merit of lab-made meat is that all those unseen factors can be controlled.

The team has recently partnered with a local blockchain company to keep a record of the research progress.

“To make lab-grown meat a trustworthy food product, we plan to make all the procedures (involved in its production) available online. Researchers, including myself, should conduct more research on food to contribute to a more sustainable future,” Hong said. — THE KOREAN HERALD/ANN