Software-controlled food tech: 3D printed pipe-dream, or fatal stack instability?
- Reference: 1679428565
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/21/3d_printed_food_paper/
- Source link:
Food research scientists at New York's Columbia University have constructed multi-layered food items — including cheesecake — in what they say is a breakthrough in more customizable foods, improved food safety, and user control of nutrients. The researchers also believe the approach sidesteps the heating inefficiencies associated with ovens, microwaves and grills and other "traditional" methods of cooking.
Post-doctoral researcher Jonathan Blutinger and colleagues tried to print a number of cheesecake designs, made up of graham crackers, peanut butter, Nutella, banana puree, strawberry jam, cherry drizzle, and frosting.
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In a [2]paper published in Nature Partner Journals’ Science of Food, the researchers found the most successful design principles in 3D printing food — which is still in its infancy — aligned with those of building architecture. They used graham cracker as a foundational ingredient, and peanut butter and Nutella as supporting layers in which the techno-bakers could form pools of the softer ingredients including banana and jam.
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There's a video accompanying the research, which you can find below:
[5]Youtube Video
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A quick scan of the accompanying demonstration video leaves viewers questioning whether the results compare favorably with a first-class Parisian patisserie chef or, indeed, for that matter, a second-round cast-off contestant in a TV baking show.
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Nonetheless, the keen gastronomic experimenters said laser cooking and 3D food printing food could help cooks to accurately place flavors within dishes as well as control textures to create what they describe as "new food experiences."
"Digital cooking technologies allow an end consumer to take more control of the macro and micro-nutrients that they consume on a per meal basis and due to the rapid growth and potential benefits of 3D technology advancements, a 3D printer may become a staple home and industrial cooking device," the paper said.
The approach also offers great cost-efficiency owing to the way it uses targeted light for high-resolution tailored heating.
"An industry built around this technology may be on the horizon, creating a new vision of better nutrition, better food accessibility and palatability for many, increasing food safety and adding art and cutting-edge science to the most basic human need — nourishment," the researchers said.
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Or maybe not. ®
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[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-023-00182-6
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[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
OK, true, although I must say that the video was entertaining in the way things came apart.
The idea behind it is that you have x containers of ingredients which are combined to make something edible, with or without diligent application of heat, which could be useful if you don't have the space or the climate to store the edible result in its final format, thus enabling on demand creation. Originally I thought maybe something for a space station, but then I realised you'd need some gravity to make this work.
Maybe it's not exactly going to immediately win Michelin stars, but I do think there's something to this. It is however evident that it will take some time to progress beyond something that needs a spoon to eat :).
New food experiences for the win
That is where creative cooks will make some magic with these tools. But the tools by themselves won't lead to food that makes any kind of sense. It reminds me me of Alton Brown using an centrifuge in one of the episodes. There was a guest chef he was "competing" against in the episode, which was really a showcase on using some non traditional tools and methods in the kitchen. But you could see the light bulb come on for the chef as clearly as you could see he was not impressed with Alton's version of tomato soup.
It will never make sense to stock a "3D food printer" to cook user selectable food choices in real time. It's too slow, too expensive, and in the end pointless. You can stack pre-made versions of the limited selections you could print in the same space such a machine would take up, but cheaper, faster, and more efficiently. Japan already is.
So you are left with the novel factor, which for a vending machine is self limiting. Or you let the chefs go cracy with them, 3d printing a crispy shell and possibly filling it with tasty things. Plenty already are with things like chocolate. But in reality, it's mostly just a minor tool that can easily make a handful of shapes that are hard to do with a mold or form.
So I expect I will see this on cooking shows more than in working kitchens.
Maybe for wedding and other specialty cakes ...
a 3-D printer could be loaded with different coloured frostings to build more detailed and intricate cake toppers than one could do "by hand" (with frosting bags, squirty tubes, and whatever else baker-wizards use these days). Otherwise methinks this is, as has already been noted, a solution looking for a problem.
First world problems
...customizable foods...
Basically, this says it all. We've become extreme selfish bastards.
It seems highly inefficient to the point of virtually reinventing the wheel to develop technology and the take on the overhead of a supporting industry for something already provided naturally by a person taking a few minutes of healthy downtime from life's ambitions while they make themselves a snack.
So many interacctions and lossy dependencies could be avoided and still have access to these items with relative convenience.
This solution looking for a problem is unnecessary complexity and loss to engage.