IF YOU think 3D printed food exists only within the realms of futuristic possibilities, you’d be wrong.
It’s here in the now and something another industry, one as old as time, can find common ground within.
Agriculture and science have grown up somewhat side by side as agronomists and agricultural scientists work with farmers to get the best out of soil and crops.
Now Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Liezhou Zhong is shaking up and exciting the agricultural industry with new ways to utilise farmgate waste or imperfect produce.
FUTURE IS NOW
THE Edith Cowan University researcher and his team recently published research titled Three-dimensional food printing: It’s readiness for a food and nutrition insecure world.
Their research looked to evaluate extrusion based 3D food printing and its possibilities when promoting healthy and sustainable eating.                                                                                              Perhaps it is within the ‘healthy’ aspect that input from farmers is being sought.
Nutrients found within crops like carrot, peas, beans, corn, potato, beetroot and potato, are the ‘filament’ for these machines.
Because the produce is specifically formulated to work with the printing machines, it doesn’t matter what it looks like.
Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries generate 9.8 million tonnes of pre-farmgate waste every year, equating to about 10 percent of the country’s total waste.
Produce that doesn’t meet specific industry conditions is often ploughed back into farmlands despite being as edible and nutrient full as the ones deemed aesthetically pleasing.
“The benefit of 3D printed food is we don’t need to care as much about the size, colour or shape of the fruit or vegetables because the technology reshapes them into anything we want,” Dr Zhong said.
“These imperfect fruits and vegetables create perfectly healthy and edible food products through our technologies.
“We also freeze dry imperfect fruit and vegetables as a powder so we can cook them together.
“This is a way to ensure adequate nutrients are taken in because many people at aged care centres have a low appetite.
“We make portion sizes smaller and that gives them confidence to finish the plate and eat more.”
He said not just senior citizens will benefit from this technology, there are real benefits to it being used in the military as well as a tool to help children make healthier choices.
“We understand that freeze drying is an expensive, time and energy costing process but we want to be able to say we are using high quality food products,” he said.
“The freeze drying process can create a better quality product than if it were dehydrated or processed using any other method.
“Our main focus is for the food to be perfectly edible and have high nutrient content.”
What motivates scientists like Dr Zhong to seek out new ways of utilising and cooking produce?
He said the initial motivation was the challenge many aged care facilities faced in creating nutritional food that had a texture easily swallowed and digested.
“If moulding can help people to eat more then why not make that higher performance or higher quality 3D printed texture modified food,” he said.
“We also found current texturally modified foods are often diluted to achieve a puree consistency.
“Extra water or gums are added to fruit and vegetables to make them smooth.
“We wanted to reduce the water amount and gum usage.
“That’s why we are using freeze dried fruit and vegetables to do 3D printing.”                                                                                                                                                                                                   He said using imperfect produce worked perfectly for this purpose and delivered all the nutrients a person needed to live a healthy life.
HOW IT WORKS
THERE are four different types of 3D printing hardware used for the production of foods and these are based on the principles of material extrusion, material jetting, binder jetting and selective laser sintering.
In material extrusion food ink material is in a liquid or powder form and forced to flow through a shaped hole or die under varied temperatures and pressures at a steady rate.
With material jetting, an array of pneumatic nozzle jets produce a layer of the ink material and deposit it onto a surface similar to 2D inkjet printing.
Binder jetting is similar to material jetting but uses a liquid binder with a powder base to form the desired product.
Lastly with selective laser sintering, the laser applies high temperatures and fuses the powder ink materials in layers.
In most common extrusion types of 3D printing, a food ink must be able to flow from the print cartridge, yet form a self-supported shape once deposited on the printing platform.
IN EVERY KITCHEN
IT’S not farfetched to imagine a future where 3D food printing machines will sit on kitchen benchtops alongside air fryers and microwave ovens.
Researchers at CSIRO say these printers could serve as more ‘inclusive and affordable’ tools to deliver personalised nutrition through localised food supply and waste upcycling.
A University of Queensland research team have been working on developing meat based 3D products that meet the dysphagia quality parameters.
Their research determined products of defined texture and sensory properties were able to be freshly prepared using 3D printing in a design similar to real food, but easier to swallow.
An interest in these developments has been taken up by start-ups
Redefine Meat15 and NovaMeat16, who are developing plant-based meat using 3D printing to mimic fibrous meats and seafoods.
This is an industry still in its infancy, if history is anything to go by then the best is yet to come.