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Award given to 3D printed carrots - 20th November 2023

A 3D printed carrot has won two young university students in Qatar the top innovation prize. Their unique machine is capable of forming organic cells into ready-to-eat vegetables.

At the 'Business Incubation and Acceleration Hackathon', the pair – Lujain Al Mansoori and Mohammad Annan – were awarded $6,800 to invest in the further development of their invention.

3D printers had already been used to make food more digestible for elderly or unwell individuals, but the food couldn't be produced on a massive scale.

What made the pair's invention original was the particular combination of two aspects – the use of ultraviolet light together with food material.

Annan explained that the technology "supports mass production because it uses ultraviolet light."

A procedure called 'plant cell culture' was also employed by the scientists, where vegetable cells are multiplied in a lab to produce the printer's 'ink'. Before inserting these into the machine, a substance sensitive to UV light is added to help shape the food.

Guided by an LED lighting system called 'masked stereolithography technology', the 3D printer forms the vegetable cells into a carrot, although it could construct any other shape just as effectively. The resulting vegetable costs $2.75 per three kilograms, while Qatari supermarkets charge $4.12 for normal carrots and what’s more, the student inventors claim the 3D printed version's just as nutritious in terms of vitamins.

With only 2.5 percent of the country being farmable land, Qatar’s obliged to import its fresh produce. Although desert can be converted into farmland, that process is expensive, so the country's economy could benefit hugely from such innovations.

Passionate about tackling food shortages globally, Al Mansoori and Annan aim to assist poor nations suffering from lack of food.

In the words of Al Mansoori, they hope their invention will make "food accessible to people all over the world".