The Genie
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Ink seems so retro now that machines can custom-print myriad 3-D objects, including snacks.
Open Wide: 3D-Printed Foods Made to Eat: Photos
Ink seems so retro now that machines can custom-print myriad 3-D objects, including snacks. Here are some of the most impressive edibles to emerge from 3-D printers so far. Cornell University’s Creative Machines Lab is at the forefront of 3-D printed food. The lab’s Fab@Home project led by PhD candidate Jeffrey Ian Lipton uses solid freeform fabrication to print interesting snacks. Lab researchers worked with the French Culinary Institute to print this space shuttle from cheese. 3-D Printing Is Getting Ready to Explode
Cornell Creative Machines Lab
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Printing with chocolate is a no-brainer given its consistency but what used to be a novelty has started going mainstream. Chocolate companies are using 3-D printing tech in new ways, like this tractor printed for Nestlé and Android KitKat’s Chocnology exhibition.
Paul Jacobson, Flickr Creative Common
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Using food like ink can be much trickier than generating a mold from 3-D tech. Several years ago Windell Oskay and his team at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories custom-built a 3-D fabricator that fused sugar together into sculptures. More recently 3D Systems released the ChefJet printer to produce confections and cake-toppers.
Windell Oskay, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
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One day the pizza question could be, Fresh, frozen or printed? The Barcelona-based startup Natural Machines printed fresh pizzas using a 3-D machine prototype called Foodini in 2013. At the same time, NASA gave a grant to the Systems and Materials Research Corporation in Austin to develop pizza-printing capabilities for space. 3D-Printed Pizza to Feed Colonists on Mars
Youtube Screengrab, Natural Machines
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The crew at Cornell University’s Creative Machines Lab did print thick cookies containing the letter C but German designer Ralf Holleis produced fewer crumbs. He collaborated with a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Coburg to print holiday cookies from red and green colored dough.
Cornell Creative Machines Lab
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Printed meat doesn’t sound all that appetizing but that hasn’t stopped anyone from trying. The startup Modern Meadow is working on developing humane, bioprinted meat while Natural Machines used their Foodini to create real swirled hamburgers -- as well as the buns and cheese to go on top.
Youtube Screengrab, Natural Machines
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These chips might look like ramen noodles but researchers at the Cornell Creative Machines Lab printed them from corn dough. The flower shape allowed for even frying, Fast Company reported. If you want pasta, Natural Machines says its Foodini printer can serve up gnocchi and ravioli.
Cornell Creative Machines Lab
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NO Research envisions using 3-D printing to address world hunger, although some might squirm at their proposals. Their food printer can generate nutrient-rich snacks from alternative ingredients like algae and even mealworms.
TNO Research
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If telling kids to eat broccoli because it’s “little trees” doesn’t work, perhaps Natural Machines’ 3-D printed spinach quiche will. To tempt picky young eaters, the Spanish startup produced vegetable snacks in the shape of butterflies and dinosaurs using their Foodini printer.
Natural Machines
Thanks to a new gadget that’s a mix between Star Trek’s "Replicator," which whipped up meals on demand for those on board the fictional starship, and the Keurig coffee maker, cooking can soon become much more convenient.
The Genie, which is about the size of a small coffee maker, can produce a variety of meals using pods. The pods, containing all-natural ingredients, are freeze-dried and have a shelf life of between one and two years. The meals are served in 140-gram portions.
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DCI
Israeli entrepreneurs Ayelet Carasso and Doron Marco from White Innovation developed the gadget, which is operated with a mobile app.
Through The Genie app, the device receives the go ahead to begin mixing and shaking, as well as adding any necessary liquids from the gadget’s tubes. The back of the machine bakes or cooks the dish at the appropriate temperature.
“The dish can be anything. It can be a meal like chicken with rice, like couscous with vegetable or an amazing Ramen or even a chocolate soufflé or any other desert that you want,” Carasso told Reuters.
“We’re using only natural ingredients, we’re not using any preservatives or anything that people add to their meals,” she added.
So far, Isreali chefs have begun creating new recipes for The Genie’s pods and pods specifically featuring the work of culinary personalities and specific diets, such as sugar and gluten-free, are expected in the future.
While this gadget can certainly make home cooking much easier, White Innovation hopes to first market the gadget to convenience stores and cafes before selling directly to consumers.
There are also farther-reaching goals to address world hunger. The pods, entrepreneurs believe, could even out food distribution around the world, have a longer shelf life and could significantly reduce food waste.