U.S. researchers have developed a three-dimensional "food printer" that can print out a variety of foods such as cookies and apple pie using ingredients "ink" to break the traditional concept of cooking and innovate food processing ideas.
The food printer developed by researchers at Cornell University in the United States consists mainly of syringes, using special "inks" such as cheese, chocolate, and cake paste.
Similar to the ordinary printer, after the user presses the "print" button, the food printer will sequentially "print" the various ink "inks" in the syringe according to the electronic drawings provided by the computer-aided design software.
Electronic drawings, like recipes, precisely specify the sequence of the syringe's "inkjet" and how various ingredients are stacked.
The research team leader, Dr. Geoffrey Lan Lipton, introduced that at this stage the "ink" is limited to liquids or gels. However, the research team is working on converting non-liquid ingredients into easily-injectable materials.
Lipton said users can use electronic drawings to control food flavors, textures and other characteristics. For example, you can make more crisp biscuits by adjusting "recipes" and printer chutes. The research team has successfully "printed" the letter-embossed cookies.
For many chefs, the invention means that they can develop new dishes and make personalized dishes.
Humatoro Cantu, a chef at Moto Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, said that using food printers to make food can greatly reduce the link from raw materials to finished products, thus avoiding the adverse effects of food processing, transportation and packaging.
Research team member Hodley Lipson said that in the future, they will introduce “Chef Computer Aided Design Software†based on computer-aided design software used in food printers, allowing users to design recipes and share them with others, such as “You press Print button, the machine will ask you how many copies you need."
By then, people who know nothing about cooking can download recipes developed by famous chefs, use food printers to make elaborate meals, or “print†delicious dishes that are recommended by doctors and are full of nutrition.