3D printers may soon replace stoves, ovens and microwaves after mechanical engineers at Columbia University successfully created a record-breaking seven-ingredient pre-cooked slice of cheesecake.
3D printing technology for food has been around since 2006, but only a few materials are available. His state-of-the-art 3D food printer comes with a repository of pre-loaded recipes, allowing users to design their own food using a computer or phone.
To manufacture 3D printed food, you need a printing material: food-grade syringes primed with edible “ink.” The food used must be viscous enough to maintain its shape, yet soft enough to pass through the syringe printhead. 3D-printed foods typically require additional steps, such as baking or frying, before eating.
3D-printed food has great potential to create creative, delicious, nutritious, and environmentally sustainable foods, according to a perspective paper authored by mechanical engineers at Columbia University. .
“That customizability is particularly practical for the plant-based meat market, where textures and flavors need to be carefully blended to mimic real meat,” said Jonathan Blutinger, lead author of the paper.
So the engineers challenged themselves to create a ready-to-cook cheesecake with a variety of ingredients. The printing process used Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), typically used to manufacture plastic parts, but was modified so that the printer could use lasers to thermally process the material. We used two lasers, a blue laser and a near-infrared laser, which can effectively cook thin layers of ingredients.
Engineers chose a food grade ink made from graham cracker paste, peanut butter, strawberry jam, nutella, banana puree, cherry juice and frosting. To the team’s knowledge, this is a record-breaking number of materials he used to print one food item.
It took seven attempts to complete, but by the eighth iteration, the engineers were using only the software to print a prepared seven-ingredient dessert without user intervention.
With each iteration, the engineers found it difficult to maintain the shape of the cake. Applying principles similar to those used by architects, the team used more structural materials to support the softer. A successful design used graham crackers as the base for each layer, backed by peanut his butter and Nutella with banana his puree and strawberry his jam.
Engineers believe that 3D-printed food can offer a new taste experience to meals, now that many ingredients have been successfully used. This process can also be used to create personalized meals for people with dietary restrictions, fussy parents, athletes, and nursing home residents.
“We have a big problem with the low nutritional value of processed foods,” said Kristen Cooper, one of the study’s authors. for people with better nutrition management and coordination – personalized nutrition.”
For those overwhelmed by the finished product aesthetic, the engineering team promises future products don’t have to look so appetizing.
“Extrusion path control [of the printer] We can create unique combinations of lattice structures and woven components that cannot be replicated by traditional extrusion or molding methods,” said the researchers, who will continue to work on improvements to optimize device performance. .
The video below shows the engineering team experimenting with different structural components before arriving at the final printed product.
3D printed cake
A prospective article was published in a magazine NPJ: Food Science.
Source: Columbia University
