Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Digital cuisine, or food printing, like other life-giving food technologies,
will introduce new health and social beneits. Biometric data and computing
power will enable new combinations of ingredients and new food shapes. Food
printing will introduce a new generation of processed food that's nutritious,
cheap, fresh and delicious.
From processed to synthetic food
If processed is controversial, how about food that's completely synthetic? I'm
using the term “synthetic food” fairly loosely, meaning food that's edible,
nutritious, even tasty, but did not originate from base ingredients that most
of us would consider natural, or even recognize.
There are two ways to 3D print synthetic food. The irst relatively straight-
forward method would be to mix up a paste of familiar food, say garlic scallop
paste, and then to 3D print that into a novel shape. The second, more futuristic
method of printing food would be to mix up a paste of chemical building
blocks and use a digital recipe to 3D print raw food material into imitations
of “real” food.
If you've ever taken apart a laser printer, you probably remember that only
three core colors of ink—cyan, magenta, and yellow—can create a rainbow
of different sorts of colors. By blending just a few basic colors together in
exquisitely precise ratios, a laser printer can create a colorful and visually
appealing document. When the concept underlying color printing is applied
to the world of food ingredients, a new limitless world of culinary possibility
opens up. Using just a few basic ingredients, a food printer of the future could
combine raw food materials in new and different permutations to create an
ininite number of new and diverse food types.
Basic food components lined up for a food-
printing trial
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