Cow cells grown in rice: It can be done but will anyone really eat it?

As share prices and profit margins plummet of many alternative meat companies, both plant-based manufacturers and laboratory-grown start-ups, scientists keep delivering examples of what can be created.

The situation is prompting many in the beef industry to suggest some of this research needs to be accompanied with investigations on whether consumers would be even remotely interested.

The latest has Korean biomolecular engineers adding cultured beef rice, whereby they have successfully grown animal muscle and fat cells inside rice grains, to the list.

They tout the beef-rice hybrid as a protein-rich food of the future.

The team from Yonsei University took muscle and fat stem cells from cows and transplanted them into grains of rice. The porous nature of rice allows room for the stem cells to grow within the rice in a petri dish.

After just nine to 11 days, the hybrid food became a safe, usable ingredient that contained 8 per cent more protein and 7pc more fat than regular rice, the researchers reported.

The technology was presented this month in the scientific journal Matter.

As is typically the case, the scientists say affordability and a smaller carbon footprint were their guiding principles.

However, more and more this sort of work is being criticised as superficial, with little likelihood it will progress past the point of proving it can be done in a laboratory given the unlikelihood of consumer support.

Lead author Sohyeon Park was adamant the dish had commercialisation potential.

"We usually obtain the protein we need from livestock, but livestock production consumes a lot of resources and water and releases a lot of greenhouse gas," Ms Park said.

This product had a significantly smaller carbon footprint at a fraction of the price, she said.

For every 100 grams of protein produced, hybrid rice is estimated to release less than 6.27 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent, while beef releases 49.89kg, the researchers claimed.

And they believe it could be produced for a retail price way less than a quarter of the going rate of real beef.

"Given that the hybrid meat rice has low food safety risks and a relatively easy production process, the team is optimistic about commercialising the product," a press release on the work said.

"But before the rice makes its way to our stomachs, the team plans to create better conditions in the rice grain for both muscle and fat cells to thrive, which can further boost the nutritional value."