Utter Fabrication

The allure of 3D food printing

- Charlene Chow

Lin Wei Xiang, culinary technologist at Singapore Polytechnic’s Food, Innovation and Resource Centre (FIRC) loads a pink substance into a bulbous syringe. Attached to a steel frame, the syringe stands poised over a glass plate. The whole contraption is no bigger than, say, a coffee machine. “We usually need to extrude a bit of it first, to make sure that it comes out right. The first layer can be a bit uneven.” A few test quirts later and byFlow, a Dutch-made 3D food printer, is off. Noisily, repetitively, the syringe deposits pink substance hexagonally, layer by layer, until a honeycombed dish of mashed potatoes and beet root powder materialises.

It looks rudimentary but this potentially, is what the future of ‘making’ food looks like. When Hod Lipson, professor of engineering and data science at Columbia University, New York City, and his team first experimented on 3D food printing in the mid 2000’s, it was something of an accidental discovery. Since then, 3D food printers have steadily gone from prototypes to commercialised trade products. Apart from byFlow, other examples are Foodini, which uses fresh ingredients to prepare 3D printed food; Procusini, a plugand-play machine adept at chocolate and pasta creations; and ChefJet by 3D Systems, noted for their capacity to make sugar creations in geometric shapes.

Granted, there are limitations to what you can put through a 3D food printer. And you may still need to cook it afterwards. But restaurants are starting to take notice. 3D printing pop-up restaurant Food Ink debuted in London in 2016 serving nine course meals printed to order at £250 per person. A new 3D printing restaurant is set to open in the Nethelands later this year. And chefs such as Paco Perez of Barcelona’s Enoteca Paco Perez have made dishes using 3D food printers. It could be a matter of time before a 3D food printer becomes as common as a microwave.