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3D food printing—An innovative way of mass customization in food fabrication

tella. Figure 1 shows a food printing platform with a solidation of these layers until the completion of a 3D
printhead developed at the National University of object.
Singapore. The platform is built based on a modified (3) User control interface design: User control means
Prusa i3 platform with a self-developed extrusion full control of shape, ingredients, and materials, which
printhead. A cookie dough consisting of flour, sugar, may significantly impact the creative design of food.
egg and butter, and food additives is used for this Thus, the user control interface design involves three
printing experiment. functions: (i) providing tools for shape, design, and

(A) (B) material selection for customized designing of food
pieces; (ii) transforming this design into a digital 3D
model; and (iii) planning dispensing pathway and
processing–related parameters. It is essential to link
this user interface with an open-access, web-based
template library [19] . With this link, customers can de-
sign their own personalized food pieces, as well as
obtain or share design files online through a technol-
ogy service provider.

2.3 Available Printing Materials
Raw materials and unprocessed ingredients usually
Figure 1. (A) Food printing platform and (B) Printhead have longer shelf life than the final food products. If
food products can be quickly printed on the spot based
With the modified commercial platform, research- on users’ requirements, people can have fresh meals
ers can quickly create complex food shapes, and all the time. Substantial efforts have been made to
compare the properties and fabrication processes of pre-process materials suitable for 3D printing and in-
various food materials. However, these platforms are crease their thermal stability during post-processing.
not flexible for further improvement and are only ap- NASA [20] has funded a project to determine the capa-
plicable for a limited range of materials, and therefore bilities of 3D food printing technology to ensure nu-
they cannot support in-depth research. trient stability for a variety of foods from shelf stable
(2) Food printers based on self-developed platform: ingredients, while minimizing waste. Generally, the
Self-developed platforms are built based on specific available printing materials can be classified into three
requirements, such as creating 3D sugar structures categories based on their printability.
with a computer-controlled laser machine [16] , building (1) Natively printable materials: Natively printable
cheese and chocolate 3D objects from edible materials like hydrogel, cake frosting, cheese, hum-
ingredients [17] , or reducing the costs associated with mus, and chocolate can be extruded smoothly from a
freeform fabrication of sugar products using syringe [21] . The mixture of sugars, starch, and mashed
open-source hardware [18] . Self-developed platforms potato were tested as powder materials in Z Corpora-
have a wide range of material choices, and printheads tion powder/binder 3D printer [22] . A number of sugar
can be appropriately designed and implemented teeth were fabricated for demonstration. However,
among a few candidates, and dispensing parameters. none of them is the main course of meals. Some tradi-
Therefore, fabrication process can be more flexible tional foods were tested for printability study using
and optimized. Fabaroni [23] . Judging by the printing viscosity, product
In both commercial and self-developed platforms, consistency, and solidifying properties, the most suc-
mechanical movements of substrate and dispensing cessful material was pasta dough. Food products made
head(s) are achieved through computer control. First, by natively printable materials can be fully custo-
a digital 3D model is converted into multiple layer mized for taste, nutritional value, and texture. Some of
data (STL files), and then this data is interpreted into the natively printable materials are stable enough to
driving signals to stage driver motors through the re- hold the shape after deposition and do not require fur-
gulated controller. The printhead moves and dispenses ther post processing. Thus, they can be reserved for
one layer at a time according to its own characteristic medical and space applications. Other composite for-
shape and dimensions, followed by binding and con- mulations such as batters and protein pastes may re-

30 International Journal of Bioprinting (2015)–Volume 1, Issue 1