As well as spaghetti made from hemp flour, he provided tastings of hemp taralli-hard savoury biscuits from southern Italy-and hemp oil, which has a distinctive, nutty flavour.

Hemp seeds are one of the richest sources of vegetarian protein, with high concentrations of omega fatty acids, growers say.

While most pasta makers have yet to venture into the hemp market, they are finding new ways to present the staple, patenting new pasta shapes and sizes.

La Molisana, for example, showed off its square-shaped variety of spaghetti, the so-called 'spaghetto quadrato'.

Wine makers, too, are looking for ways to differentiate their products, with on

e producer aging its bottles on the sea bed for up to a year before selling them, encrusted with algae.

"The lack of light and constant temperature combined with the 'massage' effect of the tides produces great results," said Gianluca Grilli, co-founder of the Tenuta del Paguro which won Bellavita's best beverage business award, worth 10,000 euros.

Tenuta del Paguro uses the wreck of the Paguro oil drilling platform, which sank in the Adriatic Sea in 1965, to store its wine underwater.

The three reds and one white are produced in Riolo Terme, near Ravenna, in central Italy, before being sent to mature under the waves. The bottles sell in Italy for 100-150 euros ($110-160) each, Grilli said.

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