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Review ARticle

Extrusion-based 3D food printing – Materials and

machines

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Cavin Tan , Wei Yan Toh , Gladys Wong and Lin Li 1*
1 Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore
2 Nutrition and Dietetics, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore

Abstract: To help people with dysphagia increase their food intake, 3D printing can be used to improve the visual appeal of
pureed diets. In this review, we have looked at the works done to date on extrusion-based 3D food printing with an emphasis
on the edible materials (food inks) and machinery (printers) used. We discuss several methods that researchers have
employed to modify conventional food materials into printable formulations. In general, additives such as hydrocolloids
may modify the rheological properties and texture of a pureed food to confer printability. Some examples of such additives
include starch, pectin, gelatin, nanocellulose, alginate, carrageenan etc. In the second part, we have looked at various food
printers that have been developed for both academic and commercial purposes. We identified several common advantages
and limitations that these printers shared. Moving forward, future research into food printer development should aim to
improve on these strengths, eliminate these limitations and incorporate new capabilities.
Keywords: additive manufacturing; food printer; food ink; hydrocolloid; dysphagia

*Correspondence to: Lin Li, Singapore Center for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore 639798; mlli@ntu.edu.sg

Received: April 30, 2018; Accepted: June 13, 2018; Published Online: June 21, 2018
citation: Tan C, Toh W Y, Wong G, et al., 2018, Extrusion-based 3D food printing – Materials and machines. Int J Bioprint,
4(2): 143. http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/IJB.v4i2.143

1. introduction However, the complications (e.g. aspiration pneumonia,
malnutrition and dehydration), which are a direct result
Dysphagia is a debilitating condition whereby a patient is of dysphagia , are usually severe if there is no timely
[7]
unable to swallow food in a safe manner. This condition and appropriate intervention. A common intervention
is usually the result of weakening or loss of muscle technique widely employed by healthcare providers is
function responsible for the reflex actions that take the modification of food consistency. For example, in
place during deglutition. Dysphagia typically follows Singapore’s Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, conventional food
neurological disorders such as stroke, Parkinson disease is blended to a soft and smooth consistency and then
and progressive dementia, all which scale in occurrence thickened with potato flakes so that dysphagia sufferers do
with age. Across a sample size of 3,174 elderly hospital not choke on overly structured foods, nor do they aspirate
patients 65 years or older, dysphagia was found to affect low-viscosity liquids. The result of such food texture
[1]
7.6% of the patients . However, in the case of a nursing modification, is that relatively unappetizing homogenous
[2]
home, prevalence of dysphagia peaks up to 60% . It is food purees are served at every meal, leading to poor oral
also observed that 45–62 % of stroke patients experience intake of both food and liquids .
[8]
some form of dysphagia [3–6] . The advent of 3D printing technology will allow us
This condition, by itself, is not life-threatening. to transform these shapeless purees into 3D structures

Extrusion-based 3D food printing – Materials and machines. © 2018 Tan C, et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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