Printable Diets: How Soon Will We Have 3D Foods?
With 3D printing starting to take off over the past few years, we have only just begun to understand the possibilities and consequences of manufacturing objects from home.
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3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is achieved by creating a 3D model of the desired object in a computer program. Then the program instructs the actual printing component to add layer upon layer of a type of polymer (i.e. long chain on smaller subunits). This is fundamentally different from the subtractive manufacturing method of removing small pieces, or layers, from an initial piece of material (e.g. wood carving, sculpting).
Currently, 3D printers are mostly used for small household items, but the potential to create anything from medical and health supplies is increasing. Take, for example, the RepRap printers.
RepRap printers are designed to print the components needed to make a new Reprap printer - which means they are self-replicating and can essentially produce clones, and therefore can create an endless supply of new printers. In turn, driving the price of each printer so far down that anyone can own and operate one (with a little training)
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This is where it gets interesting.
There are plans to take RepRaps to third world countries, where they can be used to design more RepRap machines, which can ultimately create thousands of 3D objects like water filters and useful tools that are hard to donate or build.
But this is just the beginning.
3D printing is now moving into nutrition with personalised, printable diets on the horizon. The idea is that you can determine your own nutritional needs (i.e. the number of macro-nutrients, vitamins, minerals etc), and customise how much you want to insert into an object. If you want a high protein pasta in a bizarre shape, then all you need is a little training in the computer programming and you are well on your way to a giraffe-shaped meal.
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Check out some different companies making 3D printed food here.
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I was once a chef working in some top restaurants but I went back to uni and now work in innovation. This technology is potentially very cool for the restaurant industry.
I agree, I think it will start to become a lot more mainstream and there will be franchised types of restaurants that focus solely on 3d printed food.
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