WORLD TRENDS IN FOOD INNOVATION – 3D PRINTING
In a previous article we introduced the theme of foodtech (https://www.completefood.it/en/world-trend-foodtech/), giving a brief summary of the main areas in which the most innovative food companies in the world are working.
Before starting we remind you that we at Bivo have developed the only Complete Food Made in Italy, a complete and balanced food, totally natural and ready in 30 seconds. Curious to try it? Go to the following link:
We are talking about a little known but absolutely exciting area: 3D printing applied to the food sector. You’re wondering what the hell we’re talking about, and why it should be useful to “print” the food we eat.
Instead, there are many advantages of applying 3D printer innovation to the world of food.
Let’s see some of them, going in order from more immediate applications, to more extreme and futuristic applications:
Use a specific 3D printer to create ready-to-eat foods, starting with fresh ingredients.
This application is already on the market (a bit expensive, to tell the truth). It is a 3D printer in which to insert the necessary ingredients for the recipe of interest: the printer will take care of preparing the dish on its own. Have you ever heard of it? Take a look at Foodini, from the Spanish startup Natural Machines (with offices in Milan and Turin!): https://www.naturalmachines.com/foodini
Present food in a different way for children
One of the simplest applications, although it may seem trivial, is to use ingredients that are not very attractive for children but very healthy in a form that encourages children to eat. Let’s think about fresh spinach. The tests carried out have shown that “printing” spinach into dinosaur forms increases the liking of children, compared to spinach in their common form.
Fitness: customize the food on the personal needs of athletes
With 3D printing it will be possible to define which ingredients to use and in what quantities based on the specific nutritional needs of a specific person and a particular sport. A software will indicate which ingredients to put in the 3D printer, which will create the ready and nutritionally balanced dish based on the type of sport practiced.
Medicine: customize foods based on the personal needs of patients
The next step is immediate: apply the above to the medical field. Not only balancing nutritional needs, but adding directly to foods the medicines, according to the specific patient needs. Science fiction? Take a look at the German company Biozoon (https://biozoon.de/en/) which uses 3D printing technology to prepare its products for people with dysphagia.
Waste reduction: reuse raw materials otherwise thrown away
Did you know that one of the biggest causes of food waste is the appearance of the products? For example, a recent English study shows that 25% of apples, 20% of onions and 13% of potatoes are wasted due to their ugly appearance (https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/ugly-vegetable-food-waste-fruit-vegetable-a8825311.html). One possibility to reduce waste is to “reprint”, in a more beautiful form, the foods that are born with a bad appearance.
Use insects, “printing” them in a way most widely accepted by consumers.
We know that insects are one of the sustainable forms of protein production (we talked about it several times in Bivo’s blog). Even here, many studies show that consumers are more likely to eat food deriving from insects if their proteins are “reprinted” in different forms than the “original”, unattractive to Westerners (not to the eyes, let’s remember, of many Asian people who have been eating insects for millennia).
Cook while you print the food.
No, we didn’t go crazy. One of the challenges of 3D printing applied to food is that it is often not enough to “print” food, but it must also be cooked. If I have to print the food first and then cook it for myself, I’ll cook first like I normally do, won’t I? There are those who are studying the subject in depth to allow us to have a technology that will make us have a dish ready, come out hot from a 3D printer. The technology is called “laser cooking” and the reality that more than any other is investing in this technology is the engineering faculty of Columbia University. Take a look at this video if you don’t believe it (in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=84&v=DK5-nJSNzIg
Other sources:
https://www.3dnatives.com/en/3d-printing-food-a-new-revolution-in-cooking/
