But I’m not talking about printing on paper😅(and if you do, reuse it for scrap paper afterwards!)

I am talking about printing food.

From desserts to protein.

So, what is 3D printing exactly?

-Creating something physical from a 3D digital model. In this case, the ‘something’ is food.

📜History
-In 2005 the technology was used to layer uncooked ingredients that had a sticky consistency, including chocolate and sweet dough. Although the initial results were unappealing
-Columbia University has been a pioneer in the 3D food-printing sector
-First lab-grown burger was printed in 2013 using 20,000 strands of protein

👉How it works
-The digital food model is printed as layers of food
-Each parameter (of many!) is carefully controlled by the user
-Printing happens layer by layer with tiered structures (and textures) to support softer ingredients
-To create lab meat, stem cells of an animal are taken and put in a bioreactor to create a large sheet of muscle tissue
-To create vegan meat-like foods, protein from plants like peas, beans, lentils and brown rice are used

👉The journey – printed foods have come a long way

-Printed vegetable protein is now readily available – Beyond Meat is a pioneer here. It launched its first vegan meat-like products in 2012
-Printed seafood and vegan seafood are also available
-Hybrid foods – blending meat and veg protein have been launched
-3D printed foods can be customised
-And smart foods are in the pipeline to create the best nutrition per portion

🙌Sustainability
-3D printing is great for lab-grown materials like lab-meat or plant-based meat. This means less need for meat farms and for crops to feed cattle = reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions caused by farming
-Making food through technology produces little food waste
-Food printing can even be used to upcycle food – creating new foods through waste, like seeds. Or using parts of foods that are usually discarded to make them look more appealing
-Other sustainable materials are also used for structure and texture, including beeswax and microalgae

There is still some way to go to mass-produce 3D food printing and control all the variables, plus consumer buy-in needs some more time. But huge progress is made👏

Maybe you have tried lab-grown foods already?😉

Happy Friday!

(Sources: Savor Eat, NSF, nature, ScienceDirect, ResearchGate, Bernard Marr & Co, Columbia Engineering, vegconomist, Beyond Meat)