ROME: Scientists in Italy are developing sweet snacks with lab-grown plant cells and fruit residues, producing a material that a 3D printer can then process into ‘pastries’ with high nutritional content.

Italy’s rich culinary traditions may have just gained UNESCO heritage status. Still, the Nutri3D project by the country’s public research agency, ENEA, shows that scientists are pushing boundaries in the quest for sustainable, nutrient-rich snacks.

Prototypes include snack bars and glossy “honey pearls” designed to preserve flavour and nutritional value.

“In a world where arable land is shrinking, and climate change forces us to rethink food production, the goal is to keep making what we are used to eating,” said Silvia Massa, head of ENEA’s Agriculture 4.0 lab.

The aim “is not to grow the plant itself, but its cells,” she added.

Northern Europe has led early efforts, with Finnish labs producing fruit compotes from cell cultures and researchers in Zurich developing cocoa-like flavourings.

“We Italians add creativity, combining cellular food with recovered by-products,” Massa said, referring to the fruit residues from jam production, for example.

The project is run with EltHub an Italian private technology R&D firm that is part of ELT Group and Rigoni di Asiago, a family-owned company specialising in organic food products.

At EltHub in the central region of Abruzzo, ENEA’s plant-based “inks” are shaped using a 3D printer.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2025