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Jie Sun, Zhuo Peng, Liangkun Yan, et al

flavors [31] . It could offer more freedom for home users groups. Then, a fabrication planning is developed
and designers to customize chocolate shaping [13,17,27] based on recipe design, printing volume, 3D model
and personalize full-color images onto solid food for- design, and flavor selection. A key factor here is to
mats [23] . Figure 7 shows some customized food piece adjust recipe design and printing volume control to
samples fabricated by our group. achieve the listed contents on the nutrition profile.
Thus, personalized nutrition can be realized in food
4.3 Personalized Nutrition printing.
Besides general nutritional preferences, in the recent 4.4 Customized Food Supply Chain
years there has been a lot of emphasis on personalized
nutrition corresponding to individual’s health status Food printing targets a build-to-order strategy with
and body-type requirements [36] . When food printing is higher production efficiency and lower overriding cost.
integrated with a nutrition model, users can calculate Under an e-commerce platform, consumers may con-
the exact data of calories and other ingredients of fa- figure or transact food designs and fabricate physical
bricated products, and provide a precise understanding products using a nearby production facility. To
of nutritional distribution. They can control their diet achieve zero lead-time from design to market, plenty
by selecting ingredients and corresponding fabrication of innovative food design websites and mobile apps
parameters via a user interface. Hence, food printing can assist users on design and order customized food
provides a convenient way to digitize people’s nutri- products. All of them will result in a great change in
tion and energy intake and offer a better control of in- customized food supply chains, reduce the distribution
dividual dietary. Personalized nutrition in food prod- costs, simplify customized food service, and bring
ucts can be determined according to online informa- products to consumers in a shorter time. A description
tion on nutritional content, personal, and social prefe- of this new, customized food supply chain is shown
rences. Of course, there is a need for tailoring food in Figure 9. It starts with customers searching for an
ingredients, even with well-known material properties, online food design platform based on their needs, and
to specific formulations under each fabrication. selecting a food design. The corresponding design
Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram on how to data is transferred to a neighborhood Printing Service
personalize nutrition in food printing. Bureau. The selected food designs are fabricated at
First, a nutrition profile for various contents is sug- this Bureau and are eventually delivered to the cus-
gested based on the requirements from different user tomers.

Figure 7. Customized food design and fabrication samples

Figure 8. Customized food with personalized nutrition
International Journal of Bioprinting (2015)–Volume 1, Issue 1 35