Researchers in Illinois have used engineered yeast to turn compounds derived from plastic bottles and crop waste into experimental 3D-printed protein snacks called µBites (pronounced 'microbites').
"µBites is a novel food production technology where we convert both crop waste and plastic waste into its initial building blocks and feed those initial building blocks to a consortium or a group of engineered yeast. They convert these initial building blocks into protein and then we use that protein to 3D print our protein cookies," graduate assistant Sandhya Jayasekara told Reuters.
The experimental cookies are not yet approved for taste testing and remain far from supermarket shelves. But the work points to one possible way of tackling two mounting pressures: plastic waste and the need for food production in resource-limited environments.
Researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale broke down polyethylene terephthalate, or PET - the plastic commonly used in water and soda bottles - along with agricultural leftovers such as corn stalks and leaves. They then fed the resulting compounds to modified yeasts, which produced proteins and other food ingredients.
The team also engineered yeast to make vanilla flavouring from plant material and adapted another strain to turn a PET-derived compound into beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A.
The work was conducted as part of NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge, which explores food production for resource-limited environments. The researchers say the approach could eventually be used in constrained settings such as disaster zones, submarines and space missions.
"If you want to produce food in a very extreme environment using a resource, you have carbon resource waste, like the Arctic or the desert, and potentially one day on Mars or the lunar surface - µBites can do that job," said Associate Professor Lahiru Jayakody.
The research was presented on August 24 at the American Chemical Society's Fall 2026 meeting in Chicago.