In recent years, three-dimensional (3D) food printing, also referred to as food-layered manufacture (FLM) has gained increasing interest (Nachal et al., 2019). The process combines 3D printing with digital gastronomy, revolutionizing food manufacturing with customized shapes, color, flavors, textures, and nutrition (Sun et al., 2015). This technology could improve nutritional values of meals and even address hunger issues in third world countries (FutureBridge, 2020).
3D food printing in the Netherlands
Dutch food tech company ‘byFlow’ has developed a new, patented technology for 3D personalized chocolate printing after seven years (Innovationorigins, 2021). Chocolate proves to be one of the hardest ingredients to print with, due to its reliant on a precise tempering- and cooling process (byFlow, n.d.). In addition, they also collaborated with Jan Smink by opening a 3D printing fine dining restaurant in Wolvega, Friesland (Coggins, 2018). Here, a portable €3.300, – food printer creates the highly stylized dishes that end up on your plate.
Moreover, Wageningen University and Research and Eindhoven University of Technology founded ‘the Digital Food Processing Initiative (DFPI), an association that combines the latest technological innovations with food science research (TNO, n.d.). They work on 3D food printing solutions for the world’s leading food brands (e.g., unique pasta shapes for Barilla), but also for the Dutch Ministry of Defense (e.g., personalized combat snacks).
No more hunger
There are growing concerns regarding global food security and sustainability, as well as changing consumer demands for personalized food, which have led to the adoption of new technologies, like FML (Crawford, 2019). Worldwide, there is a significant proportion of the world population who lack access to food resources (Flynt, 2021). 3D-printed food could have a great impact on relieving hunger around the world. Optional future 3D printing options could be farming tools, greenhouses, or even alternative meat (Flynt, 2021).
With each innovation and project, we are one step closer to unlocking the full potential of 3D food printing. The ideal scenario would be creating food products efficiently and inexpensively, while allowing consumers to customize them. Thus, leading to offering new business opportunities in the food industry, new value chains, consumer experiences and consumer interactions (Noort et al., 2017). What do you think? Could 3D food printing be the next disruption in the global food industry?
References
ByFlow. (n.d.). ByFlow’s latest Innovation. https://www.3dbyflow.com.
Coggins, T. (2018, May 21). A 3D-Printed Food Restaurant is Opening in the Netherlands, the Culture trip, https://theculturetrip.com/europe/the-netherlands/articles/a-3d-printed-food-restaurant-is-opening-in-the-netherlands/.
Crawford, M. (2019, March 8). Solving World Hunger with 3D-Printed Food. ASME. https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/solving-world-hunger-3dprinted-food.
Flynt, J. (2021, June 25). Can 3D Printing Really Help Solve World Hunger? 3DInsider.https://3dinsider.com/3d-printing-world-hunger/.
FutureBridge. (2020, March 11). 3D Printing and its Application Insights in Food Industry. https://www.futurebridge.com/industry/perspectives-food-nutrition/3d-printing-and-its-application-insights-in-food-industr/.
Nachal, N., Moses, J. A., Karthik, P., & Anandharamakrishnan, C. (2019). Applications of 3D Printing in Food Processing, Food Engineering Reviews, 11, 123-141.
Noort, M., van Bommel, K., & Renzetti, S. (2017). 3D-printed cereal foods. TUDelft. https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid%3Ae640a7d8-2dd0-4d70-b3c9-a77b8a706dff.
Sun, J., Zhou, W., Huang, D., Fuh, J. Y. H., & Hong, G. S. (2015). An Overview of 3D Printing Technologies for Food Fabrication, Food Bioprocess Technology, 8, 1605-1615.
TNO. (n.d.). Enabling the future of 3D-printed food. https://www.tno.nl/en/focus-areas/industry/roadmaps/flexible-free-form-products/enabling-the-future-of-3d-printed-food/.
Innovationorigins. (2021, October 6). New focus on 3D printed chocolate for byFlow, https://innovationorigins.com/en/selected/new-focus-on-3d-printed-chocolate-for-byflow/.
Hi Shirley, it is great that you included the video to demonstrate how chocolate is used in 3D printing. It is definitely a very interesting innovation that has great potential to revolutionise how food is produced and give it new features with customisation. It can be used to create a more artistic style of food products and let chefs experiment more with food with high precision with endless possibilities of new designs. The most interesting aspect though is its potential to reduce waste and personalise nutrition. It is great that technology is being invented to find use for food that would otherwise be thrown away and gone to waste. I believe it will also be a great asset for people with special nutrition needs since a high level of personalisation is possible. I am unsure how exactly it could relieve world hunger, since any type of food would still need to be grown and sourced and at least in the upcoming years, the 3D technology will not make the food more affordable. I wish there were some more details included. Even though this technology is still in baby steps, I’m looking forward to what it might bring!
Interesting article Shirley! Despite the potential opportunities that it brings, I wonder how 3D printing of food would be adopted in third world countries. Would it fit in the infrastructure en the equipment available in those countries? Also, looking at the current focus upon plant-based and less processed foods: would 3D printed food contain all the nutrients needed for a healthy eating pattern? As you mentioned, the ideal scenario would be when 3D printing of food would become efficient and inexpensive. This probably would only be possible when economies of scale are reached. I hope this technology will help the SDG goal towards zero hunger, though a lot of developments probably need to happen before this will be the case.
With the many benefits 3D printing can bring with itself, I do believe that the technology will acquire more attention in the future. And that developments plus increased adoption will make this technology more accessible and efficient. But like Marielle, I also wonder whether 3D printing will be adopted in the third world soon. Moreover, I believe that this will reduce food waste in the production chain. However, I am not sure this will change the way of how people consume food and thus reduce food waste on the level of consumption, which is nowadays still the main issue around wasted food globally.
Very interesting article and technology. I think 3D printing has a lot of potential in general, and food production is one of its challenging opportunities. I wonder how this will look like at a large scale when it is adopted by societies, and if the food will actually be of the same quality as regular food in the near future.