According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock farming takes up 30 per cent of the planet’s arable land, consumes 8 per cent of its fresh water and contributes to 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The use of veterinary drugs and residual antibiotics can also lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the spread of zoonotic diseases.

But traditional cell-cultured meat is produced using expensive, synthetic carriers, which “often raise food safety concerns and inflate production costs”, Wang said.

“Rice on the other hand provides a natural, edible alternative – rich in fibre and other beneficial nutrients.”

According to the newspaper report, the researchers pre-treat the rice, using it as a scaffold to grow a layer of chicken or pork cells on the surface. “The process can incorporate both muscle and fat cells to create a balanced nutritional profile,” it said.

The resulting dish retains the dietary fibre, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals of regular rice while adding essential amino acids and animal proteins. Images published by the newspaper suggest 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.

These include using “less land and almost negligible freshwater resources, and significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions” he said.

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 the breakthrough by Wang’s team sparked a range of reactions online, including its potential as a meal option for future space travel. There was also debate about whether these processed rice products would be acceptable to vegetarians and religious groups.

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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.

But before any of these dreams become reality, there are still numerous technical challenges to overcome before cultivated meats make the transition from the laboratory to commercial markets.

“On the one hand, there is a need to achieve low-cost and scalable production quickly, while on the other, there is a need 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 “represent 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, he said.