Printable Food Is Almost Here: Neat or Nasty?
SodaHead Tech
2011/09/15 15:00:00
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Remember the days when the idea of tossing a pill in the microwave and pulling out a three course meal was nothing but a sci-fi fantasy?
Well, it still is.
But you can print your food, if you're just looking for a futuristic way of cooking dinner. It's not quite as appetizing as the microwavable pill, but it's still something you might expect to read in a William Gibson novel.
Cornell Creative Machines Lab designed a "Solid Freeform Fabrication" device that can load syringes full of liquefied food and "print" meals out of it.
It isn't limited to soft foods, but the foods do have to be pureed first, which certainly limits the possibilities.
CCML's official website writes, "Using a novel combination of hydrocolloids (xanthium gum and gelatin) and flavor agents, texture and flavor can be independently tuned to produce printing materials that simulate a broad range of foods, with only a minimal number of materials."
The device has not been properly named yet, and is obviously not available to the public, but they do have plenty of pics.
Mm, just like grandma used to make.
CCML also plans to market the device to "fine dining" professionals, suggesting the machine's ability to shape, inject, and construct otherwise complicated geometric patterns or designs.
We can't wait to see what Anthony Bourdain does with one of these things.
Well, it still is.
But you can print your food, if you're just looking for a futuristic way of cooking dinner. It's not quite as appetizing as the microwavable pill, but it's still something you might expect to read in a William Gibson novel.
Cornell Creative Machines Lab designed a "Solid Freeform Fabrication" device that can load syringes full of liquefied food and "print" meals out of it.
It isn't limited to soft foods, but the foods do have to be pureed first, which certainly limits the possibilities.
CCML's official website writes, "Using a novel combination of hydrocolloids (xanthium gum and gelatin) and flavor agents, texture and flavor can be independently tuned to produce printing materials that simulate a broad range of foods, with only a minimal number of materials."
The device has not been properly named yet, and is obviously not available to the public, but they do have plenty of pics.
Mm, just like grandma used to make.
CCML also plans to market the device to "fine dining" professionals, suggesting the machine's ability to shape, inject, and construct otherwise complicated geometric patterns or designs.
We can't wait to see what Anthony Bourdain does with one of these things.
Top Opinion
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Paul 2011/09/16 00:29:16
Making complex 3D shapes in any food product that can be liquefied and almost instantly hardened...this could work with some types of candy or ice cream in a very cold environment, with a heated printing element and reservoir. Shapes that would be impossible to make with a mold (the examples in the image are emphatically not)...imagine a tree, in 3D, complete with leaves, made of chocolate.
edit: That would require a support medium during the deposition process. Ice? The chocolate would remain if it were melted slowly. Hah...something like this would still be fabulously expensive, requiring complex temperature control. Cheaper than doing it by hand, though.
Making complex internal patterns using multiple materials or colors, where the 3D structure of one material is supported by another. Imagine a log of fudge where there is a pattern inside printed in peanut butter, and every time you slice it, a different image appears in the cross-section.
Otherwise, just use a mold or a die. The idea of applying this in a form resembling its present form, or any other current form of 3D printing, to making everyday food is dumb. For some specific novelty items it could be cool I guess.
People won't eat blue mashed potatoes. Same with this.
That's why people love the 'bark' on a slice of BBQ brisket, the buttery texture of foi-gras, the snap of a Nathan's hot dog, the crunch of popcorn...
I could go on with the list but I'm getting hungry and it's lunch time.
Gonna appreciate the texture of my cold meatloaf and cheddar in a pita.
Will have it uses
Take printable food on a space flight to the next nebula and leave my food to be prepare the old fashion way. UUUUUUUUUuuuuKa
This sounds like a commercial for a company that is just now trying to get into the market.
Once more - Food that can be deposited in 3D is not new. (Nor is the thing you replied to.) Perhaps 3D is new for this company, but it's not new for the world.
Clearly mine is not as good as the shop down the road in terms of flexibility or "resolution", no matter how you measure it. I could probably do better than either tool by hand, but not if I want something "constructed" (e.g. something *inside* something else with a window so you can peek in).
Was it automated and precisely computer-controlled? Or was it done by hand? Was it done arbitrarily in layers, or was it done in molded pieces?
Was it solely shapes which do not curve in on themselves, things that could be molded? Or was it more complex shapes that require support?
It was automated and computer controlled. I don't have the knowledge to differentiate between "arbitrary layers" and "arbitrary pieces".
Did you invest in the company? Can you get your money back? :)
Here is an automated bakery in 1968:
Gosh, this is both "automated and computer controlled"!! Computers have been used to automate food production, forming, shaping, and extrusion for half a century. Did you think computers were invented last year? Typically called "robots" in any production capacity, it's just a simply, single-purpose computer.
In the late 1980's you could find many bake shops that used food coloring in place of ink in a dot-matrix printer:
OMG! Computer controlled images?!?!?!? Yes... nearly 25 years of computer-printed images in bakeries.
Here is an example of 3D Printing in 1992 - only point in showing this is that the core technology has been widely available for decades:
Here is an "icing printer" from the mid 1990's that permitted printing in multiple layers. While not *pure* 3-D, neither is the example in this article - and this isn't far from it:
I can't find a specific example of what my local bakery uses, but it's a higher-resolution version of the device, above. I hope I don't need to PROVE these things have different levels of precision?
Moving on...
Circa 2002, fond...
Here is an automated bakery in 1968:
Gosh, this is both "automated and computer controlled"!! Computers have been used to automate food production, forming, shaping, and extrusion for half a century. Did you think computers were invented last year? Typically called "robots" in any production capacity, it's just a simply, single-purpose computer.
In the late 1980's you could find many bake shops that used food coloring in place of ink in a dot-matrix printer:
OMG! Computer controlled images?!?!?!? Yes... nearly 25 years of computer-printed images in bakeries.
Here is an example of 3D Printing in 1992 - only point in showing this is that the core technology has been widely available for decades:
Here is an "icing printer" from the mid 1990's that permitted printing in multiple layers. While not *pure* 3-D, neither is the example in this article - and this isn't far from it:
I can't find a specific example of what my local bakery uses, but it's a higher-resolution version of the device, above. I hope I don't need to PROVE these things have different levels of precision?
Moving on...
Circa 2002, fondant layering, the equivalent of the "icing printer" was available and could produce tidy 3D creations, while not technically a 3D technology:
But here is a homemade 3D confection machine circa 2004:
3D Chocolate/ Fondant/ Confection Machine, 2006:
Here is a homemade 3D confection machine circa 2007:
Freestanding Helix, 2008:
Here's a College project from last year:
Here's an automated 3D shuttle made from "cheeze" and scallops produced nearly a year ago:
Ah yes, but.... "Printable food is *almost* here!" Seriously?? Printable food has been around nearly my entire life. As this chronology of images shows, this is just some desperate marketing claims to make this product sound more impressive than it is. Yawn. If you want to keep debating this, you'll have to debate yourself. Already spent more time on this than it's worth. I can lead a mule to water....