German Company Working on 48 Nozzle 3D Food Printer

[Brian_Krassenstein]

A German company called Biozoon is working on a 3d food printer capable of Customizing meals, particularly for the elderly who are confined to nursing home care:
http://3dprint.com/2121/german-compa...r-the-elderly/

Biozoon looks to have their printer ready for market hopefully sometime next year. The printer uses a gelatin base to create foods which will melt in a person's mouth. Such a technology will be grat for elderly individuals who have problems swallowing whole food. The price of the printer has not yet been announced. These printers will likely be placed in food production facilities rather than homes.

Edited to add photos: 5/29/14)

In every image below all of the food has been 3D printed:

[Geoff]

haha I can just imagine the conversations now...

"Here you are Mrs Smith, your dinner is ready. It's 3D printed lentil soup"

"It's 3D what?"

"It's 3D printed lentil soup"

"its 3d what?"

"Its... oh never mind, just eat your bloody soup"

[Volker]

haha I can just imagine the conversations now...

"Here you are Mrs Smith, your dinner is ready. It's 3D printed lentil soup"

"It's 3D what?"

"It's 3D printed lentil soup"

"its 3d what?"

"Its... oh never mind, just eat your bloody soup"

Gorgeous! YMMD!
But you are so right - not telling people that it is artificial & printed would make it easier - when it tastes good!

Currently - and after lots of discussions - I am working on a column with the working title "Ethics & Disgust" reflecting all around 3D Printed Food (Will be German unfortunately)

Cheers,
Volker

[Calvin23]

haha I can just imagine the conversations now...

"Here you are Mrs Smith, your dinner is ready. It's 3D printed lentil soup"

"It's 3D what?"

"It's 3D printed lentil soup"

"its 3d what?"

"Its... oh never mind, just eat your bloody soup"

HAHA! Sketch comedy skit in the making there.

[squadus]

Salivating at the thought of 3D printed mashed potatoes, grits, soup and orange juice.

[Mysli]

Wow, mashed Perderders! that even melts in your mouth

[Brian_Krassenstein]

The original post has been edited to include some updated pictures. Pretty incredible!

[Feign]

Aside from the green vegitable icon thing in the first picture, these fall into kind of a food version of the uncanny valley for me... If I'm going to eat artificial food that melts in my mouth, I'd rather prepare my brain for it by seeing something that looks like a novelty space food. Or to be honest, if I were ever at that point, I'd just switch to Soylent and save some money.

(hell, by the time I'm old enough for these problems, maybe they'll have found a way to make Soylent taste like actual food that I'd want to eat. Someday. Maybe.)

[atoff]

Am I the only one thinking "yuck?"

I mean, I see the dream... 3D print whatever food you want, but you know how this is going to turn out. We've gone from natural meats, vegetables, and fruits, to things like flash frozen microwave meals, then to foods processed such that they can accommodate "fast food." What exactly IS in a McRib?? We know these foods are disgusting, but now we're trying to move even further away from quality by processing it further in order for it to be printable.

Don't get me wrong though, there are areas where 3D printing foods can definitely shine! Buuut, I don't want 3D printed hamburgers any time soon.

[Feign]

Personally, I would rather a device that mixes various flavoring agents with a flavorless "base" nutrient shake to make a liquid meal replacement in any flavor I ask for. I know there is an equivalent device that uses a pallete of chemicals to produce any scent as needed by a computer simulation (for the life of me I can't remember the name of the product though, since nobody wanted to pay to smell their video games, the concept was kind of a non-starter.)

Flavor and texture are the keys to enjoyable food, with texture running a pretty distant second. Appearance and nutrition are components, but not really part of the enjoyment.