3 D F O O D P R I N T I N G THE RISE AND RISE OF 3D FOOD PRINTING It’s fair to say there’s quite a buzz in popular media about 3D printing and what it can achieve in applications ranging from arts and craft design to the construction of biological organs. And there is increasing buzz about 3D printing of food…it is certainly coming, but what exactly is happening, what could happen and what does this mean for New Zealand? For about ten years researchers have been progressing 3D printing, driven by several things: It can be done…3D printing is here – why not apply it to food? • Novelty – those who can afford it have for centuries looked for new things in food • Personalised nutrition – greater understanding 16 JUNE 2016 of genetics is increasing the demand for highly customised food • New food sources – algae and insects are being worked on as a means for growing protein – but this must be transformed into an acceptable food format • Fast foods – even Pompei had 120 fast food restaurants in its ruins – we now have burgers and kebabs, sushi and Subway – perhaps food printed on demand will be next • Counter-trend – whenever a trend gets huge in society, a counter emerges. Real, natural slow food is a megatrend now; artificial, fast and techno might be the counter trend. Our group at Massey University started work on food printing six years ago, chasing rapid customising of semi-solid foods, imagining a vending machine application and developing from there. 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing and involves depositing soft material layer by layer to build up a shape and fusing the resulting structure together. For most of manufacturing this was startlingly new – usually wood, stone, metal or plastic was whittled down or moulded into a shape. But food has long been laminated and layered as well as piped, deposited or enrobed. Many of the approaches involved in 3D printing are old hat in the food manufacturing scene. So it may seem strange that food is a latecomer to 3D printing commercial applications, but it is happening at pace now. There are already several 3D food printers available for purchase. Some are being used by high-end, molecular gastronomic restaurants to place complex shapes of very interesting pâtés and purees on plates. Some are being bought by laboratories for a rapid entry into a new field. The current swarm are largely based on a single syringe pump, positioned in X and Y over a platen – this is mechanised piping. Once a layer is complete, the syringe is lifted by the thickness of one layer and the next layer applied. Generally the syringe is manually cleaned and filled, and has limited capacity. But this is already enough to make a fantastic variety of new food objects which were previously impossible, as you can see on the Foodini website of Natural Machines, or the Boscusini site. The first food printers concentrated on confectionery – such as the commercially available Choc Edge printer developed by the University of Exeter. This is a great example of the 3D printing technique termed Fusion Deposition, where a molten material is deposited drop by drop and sets solid. About the same time Dutch research lab TNO demonstrated the Laser Sintering technique with Nesquik powder, where a layer of powder is spread flat then zapped by laser in the pattern desired – the platen is dropped, new powder spread and the process repeated until the finished article can be lifted out of the powder bed and brushed clean. These products worked well because of uniformity of formulation and material properties applied to the construction of the printed food (this is a characteristic of many industrial applications of 3D printing). But things are evolving. Pasta-maker Barilla has used a heavy duty machine from TNO to print Durham wheat dough into unique pasta pieces – the fact this process currently takes two minutes per piece is a pointer to the end-use applications. By Richard Archer 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing and involves depositing soft material layer by layer to build up a shape and fusing the resulting structure together.
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