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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @08:47PM
Food printing is still in beta
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @01:31AM
There are some inherent limitations to the technology.
You can't print a steak or a whole vegetable and you can't use anything that is fresh.
You can put a meat slurry into a mold and let it solidify into a gel-like texture if you add agar. You can make complex corn masa shapes and deep-fry them to get tortilla crisps. You can make a pre-pasteurized butternut squash ravioli with a anti-oxidant-infused butter and sage sauce.