The 3D printing industry is developing in the eyes of the layman: we regularly hear about the new exploits of Chinese builders who are going to print entire cities on 3D printers, or breakthroughs in the industry remain in the field of vision of only a narrow professional community.
The topic of printing food on a printer has been discussed in the media for a long time: automation of cooking, customization of dishes, incredible scalability – the potential of 3D printing for the food industry is really huge.
However, specialized printers capable of working with food, so far remain a luxury accessible only to professional laboratories and technologists.
We will understand what products and companies appear on the market due to the development of 3D printing and the search for applied applications of this technology.
The futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson collaborated with Viessmann to explore future Christmas dinner preparation. By 2050, 3D food printing technology will allow us to decorate our Christmas cakes as we wish in any shape or form.
A pastry chef creates desserts of incredible shapes, which she herself prints on a 3D printer
Confectioners bake amazingly photogenic geometric cakes and shares the results on Instagram, and prints baking dishes from silicone in the laboratory. Of course, here we are not talking about a mass product, but rather the opposite: 3D printing gives desserts new forms and helps to create a product for lovers of wonder. Such cakes can be considered an art rather than expected to see them in the menu of a network cafe.
The chef holds master classes in both cooking and 3D modeling. The development of printing technologies and the desire for experiments help the girl invent new culinary forms and develop her business, but such a time-consuming product may not become the property of the mass market.
3D cupcakes that grow their own filling
The entrepreneur noted that currently 3D printing of food has a rather significant limitation: the technology allows you to create dishes only from pureed ingredients, which virtually eliminates the use of fresh products.
We are talking about a kind of pizza muffins made of dough, inside of which is placed a nutrient concentrate from agar-agar. Mushroom seeds or spores are added to this medium, which germinate right inside the dough. After several days, the snack can be eaten already with the filling.
The product idea is very promising, but it has been a concept for three years now. The thing is that research on the development of such self-growing snacks and their composition takes a lot of laboratory time and requires certification.
