Have you heard of 3D printed food? It’s made by loading up edible ingredients in a food-grade 3D printer and printing your food layer by layer.
These printers use a similar technique to FDM 3D printers, but instead of plastic filament, food 3D printers use edible, food-safe filaments such as chocolate, tomato sauce, and various other flavors.
Once one layer of the edible model is finished, the food 3D printer starts on the layer above, creating a three-dimensional food model depositing a food-safe 3D printer filament such as chocolate onto a build plate based on a 3D printer model that can either be downloaded or designed.
Food 3D printers extrude the food material out from a nozzle, though some use robotic arms, lasers, and other crazy inventions.
Most food 3D printers currently focus on sugary desserts like chocolates and sweets, though some companies are creating 3D printed pizzas, spaghetti, and even burgers and meat.
Pizza, for example, is printed with the dough, tomato sauce, and cheese laid down in layers before the pizza is cooked conventionally. An entire 12-inch pizzas can be printed in under five minutes this way.
Other companies like Novameat and Redefine Meat are working on 3D printable beef steaks and other products using unique plant-based compounds that taste like the blood, fat and muscle that make up traditional meat flavors.
Is 3D Printed Food Nutritionally Safe?
This brings us to the question of: “Is 3D printed food good for you?” We’ve heard this promise from plant based and lab grown meat manufacturers already. I’ve written about both and nutritionally, they’re nightmares.
I doubt 3D printed foods will be much different. “At its simplest, 3D printed food is nothing more than typical edible ingredients processed in such a way that they can be extruded through a nozzle onto a surface.” (all3dp.com)
At it’s worst, 3D printed food ingredients are restricted to dry, shelf-stable ingredients that don’t spoil quickly. That means they’re processed ingredients, ground into a paste and then kept ready to be 3D printed later.
But human nutrition is based on eating whole, natural foods with crucial nutrients that can’t be duplicated in a processed food profile. That brings with it a risk of specific deficiencies and serious diseases, as research to determine the long-term effects of consuming 3D printed food is lacking, says Forbes.com.
Another concern is the materials used in the printing process. Formlabs.com mentions that while some filaments are considered food safe, others may contain harmful chemicals that can leach into the food. Additionally, the porous nature of 3D printed parts can make them breeding grounds for bacteria, which can cause foodborne illness.
With refined food technologies such as this exploding, our very relationship with food - and our health - is likely to change drastically as we flip the dynamics of food grown in ground to a processed food relationship. It won’t be for the better!