Additive manufacturing for the food industry

• 3D printing of foods can replicate traditional foods and produce novel foods.
• Custom nutrition can be accomplished with 3d printed but can be limited by a recipes ability to be varied.
• Shape stability can be achieved through processing steps and the use of additives.
• More technology development is needed for personal food printing.

Additive manufacturing of food is a nascent field with great potential but limited application, in search of utility. The key motivators for 3D printing food are customization, on-demand production, and geometric complexity. Food printings maturation can be demonstrated by the reproduction of traditional foods such as pizza using 3D printers. Methods for allowing the production of grain and protein based products which are shape stable throughout the cooking process allow for increase shape fidelity. Data driven recipes allow for customized flavor and nutrition, and printing processes allow for the production of unique textures and meso-scale porosity. Together these advances represent important steps to developing novel utility in 3D food printing.