July 10, 2014 - Blogs
I am a huge fan of ABC’s hit show Grey’s Anatomy. The medical drama is mixed with storylines of plane crashes, death, life, loss and reconciliation … well you get this picture. But this past season, the writers were definitely in tune with what was trending in the real world that we live in. Enter the world of 3D printing.
One of the season’s main storylines centered on Dr. Meredith Grey’s research into how 3D printing can be used to customized patient treatment. After a first run, in which she 3D printed a fork to the disappointment of the rest of the medical team, several doctors identified a number of life-saving uses for 3D printing, including a creating heart conduit for a dying baby.
So what does all this have to do with food and beverage development? The answer is a lot.
Hod Lipson, director of Cornell University’s Creative Machines Lab, gave a lecture at the IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo where he said while 3D printing has been around for about 30 years, its popularity has exploded in the last two to three years and the technology is “worming its way into every field." 3D printers have become more affordable, and the range of materials that can be used in printers has expanded beyond plastics to nearly any material, including foods.
Lipson said 3D food printers will have a huge impact on consumers in the future. The Cornell team began printing frosting and chocolate, and then moved on to other edible pastes, powders and gels. He said the future holds many possibilities, such as being able to control the nutritional components of food.
This hot topic was recently addressed in the most recent issue of the SupplySide Boardroom Journal, “A World Without Hidden Hunger. The article “The Industrial Revolution of Food: 3D Food Printing" examined the potentialeffects food printing could have food production, storage and distribution, and, beyond that, how 3D food printers could impact global malnutrition.
Pablos Holman, senior inventor at the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory, is working on just that. When you’re talking about global nutrition and malnutrition, there are what Holman calls compounding macro trends—population growth and variety in diet.
“If you look globally, they get almost no meat," he said. “So what we need to figure out now is how to take those two compounding trends and figure out how to feed more people with higher amounts of nutrients and do it efficiently."
Holman said what they imagine for the future is making printers more versatile, larger and cheaper, and start using them in food manufacturing—developing technology so it’s able to print a meal for you—a pixel of food versus a pixel of plastic.
The article (click here to download the free digital issue) also mentioned how the Lipson’s Cornell team created a 3D food printer that creates mini space shuttle-shaped scallop nuggets (seen in the image on this blog), and baked goods like cakes that, when sliced, reveal someone’s initials or a buried message. It is also printing a new style of corn chip made out of corn masa dough in the shape of a flower.
There is no doubt that advancements in 3D printing technology are paving the way for many industries, but it just may be the next food revolution. Let’s face it, we are going to need new methods to feed the nearly 9 billion population by 2050.
I am a huge fan of ABC’s hit show Grey’s Anatomy. The medical drama is mixed with storylines of plane crashes, death, life, loss and reconciliation … well you get this picture. But this past season, the writers were definitely in tune with what was trending in the real world that we live in. Enter the world of 3D printing.
One of the season’s main storylines centered on Dr. Meredith Grey’s research into how 3D printing can be used to customized patient treatment. After a first run, in which she 3D printed a fork to the disappointment of the rest of the medical team, several doctors identified a number of life-saving uses for 3D printing, including a creating heart conduit for a dying baby.
So what does all this have to do with food and beverage development? The answer is a lot.
Hod Lipson, director of Cornell University’s Creative Machines Lab, gave a lecture at the IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo where he said while 3D printing has been around for about 30 years, its popularity has exploded in the last two to three years and the technology is “worming its way into every field." 3D printers have become more affordable, and the range of materials that can be used in printers has expanded beyond plastics to nearly any material, including foods.
Lipson said 3D food printers will have a huge impact on consumers in the future. The Cornell team began printing frosting and chocolate, and then moved on to other edible pastes, powders and gels. He said the future holds many possibilities, such as being able to control the nutritional components of food.
This hot topic was recently addressed in the most recent issue of the SupplySide Boardroom Journal, “A World Without Hidden Hunger. The article “The Industrial Revolution of Food: 3D Food Printing" examined the potentialeffects food printing could have food production, storage and distribution, and, beyond that, how 3D food printers could impact global malnutrition.
Pablos Holman, senior inventor at the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory, is working on just that. When you’re talking about global nutrition and malnutrition, there are what Holman calls compounding macro trends—population growth and variety in diet.
“If you look globally, they get almost no meat," he said. “So what we need to figure out now is how to take those two compounding trends and figure out how to feed more people with higher amounts of nutrients and do it efficiently."
Holman said what they imagine for the future is making printers more versatile, larger and cheaper, and start using them in food manufacturing—developing technology so it’s able to print a meal for you—a pixel of food versus a pixel of plastic.
The article (click here to download the free digital issue) also mentioned how the Lipson’s Cornell team created a 3D food printer that creates mini space shuttle-shaped scallop nuggets (seen in the image on this blog), and baked goods like cakes that, when sliced, reveal someone’s initials or a buried message. It is also printing a new style of corn chip made out of corn masa dough in the shape of a flower.
There is no doubt that advancements in 3D printing technology are paving the way for many industries, but it just may be the next food revolution. Let’s face it, we are going to need new methods to feed the nearly 9 billion population by 2050.
No comments:
Post a Comment