Food 3D Printing aka Food Fabbing

[ajperez]

There has been very interesting activity on the digital fabrication of edible products for quite some time, as part of the overall digital fabrication phenomenon. In the mid to late 2000's there were different initiatives such as the research technology Fab@Home, Makerbot's frostruder and the project CandyFab (candyfab.org). Today there are many relatively small but solid projects from both startups (for example check the work by Natural Machines) and industry leaders (3D Systems' Chefjet will launch later this year) that show how people are taking food design to the next level using what we call "3D printing" technologies.
I invite this community to join the conversation in this area that will potentially affect everyone. After all, as a Food Scientist (I am not joking) I know that food is something we all have an opinion on.
Here is an excerpt of the "About" section of my blog (www.food-fabbing.com).
The possibility of combining additive manufacturing and modern food technology is incredibly exciting. The development of such food 3D printing techniques -or that we call Food Fabbing- can help to evolve food sourcing, processing, design and distribution. This offers the opportunity to advance the human project as part of the current transformation of our complex global food system.
I have been involved in food technology and design during three decades, striving to improve the delivery of this most basic human need. At the same time, imagining and creating a future of technological advance and human achievement has always been a passion for me.

--->So, what do you think, does food 3D printing have potential? Would you eat out of a 3D printer? What current issues with food would you like resolved with 3D printers?

[Eddie]

I personally think that there is a ton of potential. I just don't know if it will be in a year from now or 20 years from now.

I'm looking forward to see what technology emerges in the next year, including the foodini.

By the way it was nice meeting you in NYC this post week A.J..

What did you think of the ChefJet?

[awerby]

I know there's a lot of hype devoted to the subject, but I can't really see this ever occupying more than a tiny niche in the food industry. Maybe that's a failure of imagination on my part, but what does 3D printing potentially add to the culinary experience? It seems that it might be useful for mixing pastes like mashed potatoes, porridge and pates on crackers (slowly, and at the expense of having to refrigerate the whole system and clean out the printer's extruders and tubing rigorously after use), and for making sugary or chocolate confections and cake-toppers for special occasions like weddings (using machines like the ChefJet), but the inherent limitations of the process would seem to preclude much else. It's not going to make food taste better, or be healthier, although I suppose one could get an accurate calorie count on each canape that could be displayed on top.

The Foodini sounds like an idea whose time will never come. The idea of mushing up your food so it can fit through the extruders might appeal to the toothless among us, but few others. Making ravioli that way sounds incredibly tedious compared to the traditional method, using a roller, and hardly anybody does that because it's too much trouble compared to simply buying frozen ravioli. And purchasing ones food in "prepackaged food capsules" hardly sounds attractive, unless perhaps you're an astronaut. Color me skeptical...

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[3dkarma]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the three components of a meal are flavour, texture and presentation. 3d printing will have the most significant impact on presentation, but little on the other two (apart perhaps from niche custom-made-at-the-table flavours and dishes).

I can't see 3d-printing having an impact on mass production of food. Even though it would virtually eliminate tooling time, this would not offset the increased in time it would take to produce an individual piece, at least until 3d printing becomes much, much faster.. I can see 3d printers installed in cake shops, where you could get the confectionery of your choice made on demand, and in some restaurants while the fad is on the rise, but the impact on the industry as a whole will probably be negligible.

That being said, dibs on the custom-confectionery-in-a-cake-shop idea.

[ajperez]

Thank you all, you definitely raise some very good points. We are definitely on the same page regarding the current limitations of digital fabrication that must first be overcome before we have good digital Food Fabbing systems. Factors include limited speeds and raw material variety/formats.

However I like to think in the broad terms of the ultimate greatest potential of digital fabrication or additive manufacturing. I would say right now we are in the development phase (just clearing out of the seeding stage) of a technology that will allow the boundary between an idea and its realization into physical reality to be much thinner. This will allow us to shape our environment in an even more rapid, customized, and independent way. The Foodini and ChefJet are both very exciting and well done, yet to me their main significance is as proof-of-principles excercises of the application of 3D printing to edibles.

In that context, we can say that we are in the very, very early development stages for the use of digital fabrication in the area of foods, those familiar yet vastly complex bio-based composite systems. This contrasts greatly with medical biofabrication which is at least a decade ahead, due to heavy government and private funding. The gap can be easily understood as the “price-per-voxel” of finished medical bio-3D-printed product would be much greater than with mainstream foods of similar complexity.
So it is great to have this type of discussion, to keep the hype grounded on what is actually now possible but without losing sight of the future we want to create. As we all know this will continue to be an important topic for the digital fabrication / 3D printing movement as a whole.

-->But what do you think? Do you see a future for Food Fabbing even if distant? What do you think would be the most useful for: personalized and on-demand nutrition? Novelites and fun projects? Democratization of structurally complex designer foods? Any other(s)?

A. J. Perez
ajperez@food-fabbing.com
@foodfabbing
www.food-fabbing.com

[awerby]

When machines are invented that can put stable stock molecules together to make any sort of food we want to eat, then this idea will start to make sense (depending on how much this costs compared to conventionally sourced foodstuffs, and how well it stacks up against them). If our present pace of advances in technology can be extrapolated into the indefinite future, this can't be dismissed as impossible, and our descendants might indeed have a Star Trek Replicator in every kitchen. But it's more likely that any sort of food will be scarcer and more expensive, while techno-fantasy food will remain in the realm of science fiction. Until then (don't hold your breath) it will be a niche product in a small niche. There are certainly important applications for 3D printing technology (like bio-printing of human body parts) that don't depend on any major leaps of technological progress, but this isn't one of them.

If we're restricting ourselves to what's currently possible, then we're talking about art projects, customized items for special occasions, or ultra-expensive goodies for the super-rich. Democratization hardly comes into it. If anyone else depended on this sort of thing for basic nutrition, they would swiftly starve to death.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[ajperez]

Thanks Andrew you definitely raised some good points. It has been a few months now and it has been very interesting to follow the many developments in this niche-within-a-niche that is Food 3D Printing (more on that later). Yes, the ultimate dream of having a true "Star Trek Replicator" that does molecular additive manufacturing of complex structures like food is far away. Thus, Food Fabbing for novelties/art/hobby will continue to be a big part (if not the main one) of what we will be seeing on the coming 2-3 years. That being said multiple additional approaches are being explored, for example the Foodini by NaturalMachines (which aims at enabling fresh yet sophisticated eating in every home). Also we have yet to see the impact of specialty units such as the Chefjet from 3D Systems as well as of the efforts out of TNO in the Netherlands. And we must not forget that as we speak 3D Systems is working with Hershey's on "taking 3D Printing to Every Home" in the next few years.

--> What do you think of the above projects? Have you heard of any of the other Food 3D Printing efforts out there?

[ajperez]

A SHORT HISTORY OF FOOD 3D PRINTING
INTRODUCTION.
With the accelerating pace of development in the area within the last couple of years, now is a good time to start creating a "history of food 3D Printing." In sequential posts I will present briefly the most relevant efforts, highlighting their main contributions to the field and their most interesting and unique features. Wherever possible I will include a view on the technical principles and limitations from the food science perspective. Maybe to the surprise of some, there is a lot of different projects to include which go back many years. As always, comments and suggestions are very much welcome. Here we go.

coolfood3dp.jpg

[ajperez]

A SHORT HISTORY OF FOOD 3D PRINTING
1. FAB@HOME (2006- )
This paste extruding digital fabricator was created at Cornell's Create Machines Lab under the leadership of tremendous 3D Printing advocate Hod Lipson, as an exploratory and educational endeavor. Their vision was to create an open source platform for anyone to be able to "make anything" using their own personal fabricator. Professor Lipson has explained that initially edibles were not necessarily in their mind when the project started but that the later emphasis was the result of a combination of factors. The chemical safety element of using materials such as cake frosting, and -maybe more importantly- the interests and feedback from the makers that embraced the project just moved things in that direction. Free from the need to advance into a business model, the Fab@Home continues to educate and inspire; for instance just over a year ago The New York Times published the piece "Dinner is Printed" which chronicles the adventures of journalist A. J. Jacobs as he tries to enjoy a fully 3D Printed dinner with his wife with the assistance from Lipson and team. It is an engaging and illustrative read on the promise and perils of widespread 3D Printing at home.

fabAThome home page.JPG
Picture: fabathome.org

[ajperez]

For folks in that region of the world and for anyone interested it was announced that a short course at Wageningen University in the Netherlands called "Food Customisation by means of 3D Printing Masterclass" will take place this December. It will include talks by SMRC, the texan company consulting for Nasa as well as TNO, the Dutch technology institute that is also at the forefront of the area and for example is working with Barilla on customized pasta.
Here is the link to the event info:
http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Expert...december-1.htm