Chinese food scientists make breakthrough by combining pork and chicken with rice in lab-grown meat

This research, led by the Beijing Academy of Food Sciences’ China Meat Research Centre, was reported on Monday by the state newspaper Science and Technology Daily but has not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals. Wang Shouwei, the chief scientist of the project, stated that the lab-grown chicken and pork rice dishes are visually indistinguishable from regular varieties. “But once cooked, they release a combined aroma of both meat and rice,” he said.

Cultured meat, produced by growing animal cells in a lab, is seen as a promising solution to the inefficiencies and environmental impacts of traditional livestock farming. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock farming occupies 30% of the planet’s arable land, consumes 8% of its fresh water, and contributes to 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the use of veterinary drugs and residual antibiotics in livestock farming can lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria and zoonotic diseases.
Traditional cell-cultured meat is produced using expensive, synthetic carriers, which often raise food safety concerns and increase production costs. Wang explained that rice provides a natural, edible alternative that is rich in fiber and other beneficial nutrients.

The researchers pre-treat the rice, using it as a scaffold to grow a layer of chicken or pork cells on the surface. This process can incorporate both muscle and fat cells to create a balanced nutritional profile. The resulting dish retains the dietary fiber, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals of regular rice while adding essential amino acids and animal proteins. Images published by the newspaper show that the scientists have grown chicken and pork varieties combined with rice, purple rice, and millet.

In a review paper published in September by the Journal of Food Science and Biotechnology, Wang noted that cultivated meat offers substantial environmental benefits compared to traditional meat production, including using less land and negligible freshwater resources, and significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Earlier this year, a team from Yonsei University in South Korea used a similar method to produce pink “beef rice,” coating the grains with fish gelatin and enzymes to provide a nutritious scaffold for the meat cells to grow. According to the South Korean study, the meat layer adds the nutritional equivalent of 1g (0.03 oz) of beef brisket per 100g (3.5 oz) of rice, at a production cost of about US$2.23 per kilogram, nearly the same as regular rice at US$2.22 per kilogram.

News of Wang’s team’s breakthrough sparked a range of reactions online, including its potential as a meal option for future space travel and debates about whether these processed rice products would be acceptable to vegetarians and religious groups. Some online commenters said the treated grains sounded like the “perfect ingredient” for fried rice, while others looked forward to the development of chicken and pork noodles.

However, there are still numerous technical challenges to overcome before cultivated meats can transition from the laboratory to commercial markets. Liu Donghong from Zhejiang University, whose team was the first in China to create a cultured fish fillet, said in 2023 that there are safety concerns that must be addressed. “There is a need to achieve low-cost and scalable production quickly, and to establish comprehensive legal regulations and assess safety,” she said.

Food science expert Zhou Jingwen from Jiangnan University told Science and Technology Daily that the chicken and pork rice represents new explorations in the field of cultured meat. The development showcases the diverse applications of this technology, and with its continuing advances, China is expected to accelerate its research in this area.