Engineers show the advantages of 3D printing by turning dough and powder cartridges into cheesecake
Perhaps not surprisingly, when researchers set out to push the barriers of 3D printing, that their attempts to produce cheesecakes were unsuccessful without delay.
The first one went pretty well, but when the printer built the dessert, tossing one layer and then the next, the creation began to crumble before quietly collapsing into a sticky heap.
Despite the first setback, detailed in a study report Tuesday, engineers at Columbia University went ahead and temporarily produced recognizable, if entirely irresistible, puddings.
The aim of the task was to demonstrate that 3D printing, a generation more widely used for device and portion models, had the potential to revolutionize the kitchen, turning dough cartons and powdered foods into edible or even attractive meals.
“Cheesecake is what we can offer right now, but the printer can do so much more,” said Jonathan Blutinger, an engineer at Columbia’s Creative Machine Lab in New York City. “We can print chicken, beef, vegetables and cheese. Anything that can be turned into a paste, liquid or powder.
A roasted bird batter that doesn’t appeal to foodies and the art of cooking, Blutinger believes the published food is on the way, an herbal result of the software’s encounter with the archaic, analog global of stoves, vaporizers and pans.
“I think it’s inevitable. Once software hits an industry, we don’t look back. It propels it forward in tactics we never imagined possible. It hasn’t happened with food yet,” he said.
“The vision is to have a food printer combined with a laser cooker that can be a kind of integral kitchen appliance. It’s your own non-public virtual boss.
Writing in the journal npj Science of Food, the researchers describe a 3-D printer that can build edibles from seven other ingredients. For the cheesecake, which took 30 minutes to squirt out, that meant cookie dough, peanut butter, strawberry jam, Nutella, mashed banana, cherry drizzle and icing. The printer is armed with a blue laser to cook the layers into the helmet if needed.
After five failed attempts to print the dessert, the researchers figured out the right shape and thickness for the other layers to prevent the cake from collapsing. never before,” Blutinger said. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it’s not a traditional mix. We are not Michelin chefs.
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At all scales, from food brands to restaurants to homes, 3D printers can be the next step in automation, more people out of the prep process. Beyond the novelty value, Blutinger sees generation as a way for other people to track their calories. and nurture and unleash your inner creativity with radical new designs for food that are shared as virtual files on social media.
But Andrew Feenberg, a professor of generation philosophy at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, wonders if published food can follow the same path as the Segway, the “personal transport” that was intended to reshape the city but ended up serving staff in department stores. “This may prove most useful in restaurants and cafes where ingredient and software loading can be done outside of peak hours,” he said. “Customers would not be aware of the ‘unnatural’ side of the process, which would upset home users. I’m not thinking about having a 3D food printer at home.
Dr. Duane Mellor, a registered dietitian at Aston School of Medicine, worries that healthier nutrients, such as fiber and cell tissue, are lost through completion and vegetables to make them less difficult to print, resulting in fewer micronutrients like nutrients and minerals. But he thinks the generation will find its place, perhaps in the Red Dwarf-style vending machines being developed by NASA for long-duration space travel. “For most of us, we’re going to need someone who has made time for that kind of food,” he said.