PhysOrg runs a story on the implications of 3D printers for the food industry.
The use of 3D printers has the potential to revolutionize the way food is manufactured within the next 10 to 20 years, impacting everything from how military personnel get food on the battlefield to how long it takes to get a meal from the computer to your table..
The article attributes the following to "Hod Lipson, Ph.D., a professor of engineering at Columbia University and a co-author of the book Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing"
3D printing is a good fit for the food industry because it allows manufacturers to bring complexity and variety to consumers at a low cost. Traditional manufacturing is built on mass production of the same item, but with a 3D printer, it takes as much time and money to produce a complex, customized product that appeals to one person as it does to make a simple, routine product that would be appealing to a large group. ... Users could choose from a large online database of recipes, put a cartridge with the ingredients into their 3D printer at home, and it would create the dish just for that person. The user could customize it to include extra nutrients or replace one ingredient with another.
(Score: 1) by throwaway28 on Tuesday July 14 2015, @07:40PM
2d printers are already used for food . . . photo cakes. Edible ink on cornstarch paper or similar, that's then applied to the surface of the cake.
The nutritional value is basically zero, though.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday July 14 2015, @07:50PM
My MiL semi-retired from cake decorating before it was trendy food network BS and was more a cottage industry, anyway the point is even 5-10 years ago you could get frozen 3-d printed flowers, custom printed by species, or pay up maybe $20K to get a frosting printer for flowers (a bit out of her league).
So 3-d printing with frosting has been a "thing" for a long time with cake decorators, at least the "spare no expense" wedding cakes.
Also if you have contacts in the cake decorating biz you can buy licensed legal cake decorations that are 3-d printed so you can get a thomas the tank engine thats totally legal and slap that dude on the kids cake.