By Food Materials Research Team
In recent years, food technology has been rapidly developed. There are various innovative food products with textures, nutrients, and aesthetics that satisfy consumers’ needs.
Current food innovation focuses on personalised diets that provide appropriate nutrients for each individual’s body, such as children, athletes, the elderly, people with medical conditions, and soldiers in the army.
The 3D food printing technology is a food production process that uses raw materials efficiently, thus causing less food waste. Moreover, the process is able to customize nutrients. Therefore 3D food printing will become an important option for food industries to prepare and produce sufficient food for the world population, which is estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050.
The 3D printing technology has been in use for over 30 years. In the beginning, it was used to produce a rapid prototype; while, at present, this technology has found use in additive manufacturing at industrial level.
This technology has been rapidly developed in the last 5 years in accordance with the digital transformation and is one of the key technologies for Industry 4.0. There are a number of examples of 3D printed parts and products that are individually manufactured, such as hip arthroplasty, parts in the construction industries, and clothing accessories.
At present, the application of 3D printing technology in the food industry is still not prevalent even though it has gained more growth from various businesses in the past few years, such as international fine dining restaurants. The number of research articles in 3D food printing, however, has been increasing as shown in figure 1.
Figure 1: Numbers of 3D printing technology in academic articles during 2010-2020
Since 3D printing technique is a process of forming an object layer-by-layer, it can create products with different shapes and structures. Once applied this to food products, the technique not only produces attractive food appearance, but can also add various nutrients and ingredients in the food as required.
The 3D food printing technology can be classified into 3 main techniques, namely
- Extrusion-based printing or Fused Deposition Method (FDM)
This technique is the most prevalent method because it is similar to food extrusion and able to create food products readily, as shown in figure 2. Moreover, a 3D food printer for the basic model of this technique is not expensive. There are various food products, which can be formed with this technique, such as chocolate, pasta, and food products for those who have dysphagia.
Figure 2: Example of food printing with Fused Deposition Method
2 . Powder Bed Fusion or Selective Laser Scanning printing
This technique processes by spreading powder into thin layers and uses a laser beam to melt the raw materials at the specified positions. Once one layer is done, the new raw material powder are spread for the next layer and the same process is repeated until the designed product is received. This technique poses a higher production cost than the Fused Deposition Method (FDM); however, it provides better quality of the finished products, and can be used to design desserts made from sugar (confectionery) to create a particular size and shape. It also helps reduce the number of raw materials in the production process, as shown in figure 3.
Figure 3: Example of food printing with Powder Bed Fusion
3. Binder Jetting
This technique is quite similar to Powder Bed Fusion printing. However, it applies the spraying of liquids or other food ingredients, called binder, to bind the powders together at the required position, as shown in figure 4. This process is repeated over the desired numbers of layers until the products are embedded into the powder. The raw materials that do not attach to the binder will be removed from the product and can be reused for the next printing. The received product will be processed in the next step, such as baking. This technique can be used to design products in the bakery and confectionery groups because it can yield unique textures that will satisfy consumers’ needs.
Figure 4: Example of food printing with Binder Jetting
Example of 3D food printing technology video clips:
The 3D food printing is a great potential technology for the development of food industries in the future since it helps reduce the amount of food waste considered to be a challenge in food industries. Some food wastes are also rich in essential nutrients and bioactive compounds that can be transformed into food ink to use in 3D food printing. Thus, this technology creates value-added and reduce the loss in food production chain.
3D food printing technology can be used to develop various food products, are as follows
- Dysphagia diets food: These products are mainly blended food. When consumers have to consume blended food for a long time, it can lead them to have anorexia or malnutrition. Therefore, 3D food printing technology has been applied to create various products, such as boiled potatoes, carrots, and meat. This technology can produce products’ shape similar to conventional products, which help stimulate consumers’ appetite. Moreover, the product can also be enriched with many nutrients, such as proteins, vitamins, and minerals, thus the value-added will satisfy dysphagia diets consumers. Nowadays, this technology had been applied in a number of hospitals in various countries.
- Personalised diets food: Future food production with 3D food printing technology will support personal nutrients. At present, there is in-depth information of personal details that dictate the needs of appropriate nutrients, such as the amount and type of probiotics in the large intestine, genetic disorders, and daily habits. The 3D printing is a flexible technology that the amount and type of nutrients can be adjusted, and produces food, which is specific to each individuals, such as athletes who need balanced energy and nutrients before, after, or during the competition. Moreover, the layering process of 3D printing technology can also be applied to design food structures to reduce the waste of essential nutrients.
- Healthy food: 3D food printing technology creates new opportunities for food production, which can precisely control food texture, qualities, and sensory properties. Moreover, this technology can also develops healthy food products that need to reduce salt, sugar, and fat by applying the concept of food structure design.
The 3D food printing is a new flexible food production technology, in which consumers can design and cook according to the shape proportion of mixing and tasting as required, and it also helps reduce food waste.
At present, the price of a 3D food printer is relatively high and its production rate still couldn’t compare to that of conventional cooking with fresh ingredients. However, this technology is rapidly growing in food industries according to the digital age. Internet of Things is one of the technology that allows consumers to connect information relevant to their daily lives and well-being. This technology helps consumers to access various knowledge about 3D printing technology from different materials with a 3D food printer by using mobile phones or wearable devices. Therefore, in the future, it is possible that a number of Thailand households will have 3D food printers in their daily lives similar to microwave ovens use nowadays, as shown in figure 5.
Figure 5: The idea of preparing food at home using a 3D food printer
Referrence
[1] German, J.B., Zivkovic, A.M., Dallas, D.C. & Smilowitz, J.T., (2011). Nutrigenomics and personalized diets: What will they mean for food? The Annual Review of Food Science and Technology, 2, 97–123.
[2] World Population Prospects 2019 Highlights, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs
[3] https://3dprinting.com/food/4-famous-restaurants-that-use-3d-printers/
[4] Godoi, F.C., Prakash, S., Bhandari, B.R., (2016). 3d printing technologies applied for food design: Status and prospects. Journal of Food Engineering, 179, 44-54.
[5] Liu, Z., Zhang, M., Bhandari, B., & Wang, Y., (2017). 3D printing: Printing precision and application in food sector. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 69, 83-94.
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[8] Dick, A., Bhandari, B., Prakash, S., (2019). 3d printing of meat. Meat Science, 153, 35-44.
[9] Noort, M.W.J., Diaz, J.V., Van Bommel, K.J.C., Renzetti, S., Henket, J., & Hoppenbrouwers, M. B., (2016). Method for the production of an edible object using SLS. Patent WO2016085344 A1.
[10] Noort, M., (2018). Powder based 3d food printing technologies. 3D food printing conference, Venlo, Netherlands.
[11] https://candyfab.org (3D printing from sugar)
[12] Noort, M.W.J., Bult, J.H.F., Stieger, M., & Hamer, R.J., (2010). Saltiness enhancement in bread by inhomogeneous spatial distribution of sodium chloride. Journal of Cereal Science, 52, 378-386.
[13] Schroter, A., (2018). What Will The Future Taste Like? Next Generation of 3D Food Printing, 3D Food Printing Experience, Wageningen.
