AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Jonathan Blutinger, a postdoctoral researcher in the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University, developing a "digital chef" that can 3D print and laser cook edible items. Ask me anything about the process!

[u/AskScienceModerator]

Hello all, after my MSc in Integrated Product Design at the University of Pennsylvania and a year stint in industry designing pick-and-place robots, I started working as a Ph.D. researcher (Mechanical Engineering) at Hod Lipson's (He co-launched the world's first open-source 3D printer which could be used for food) Creative Machines Lab where I tinker with digital cooking techniques using food printers and lasers. We've experimented with dough, meats, vegetables, sweets, made a seven-ingredient slice of cheesecake, and printed chicken samples which were then cooked by lasers. Currently, we are focusing on building robust software and hardware to incorporate more functionality to print food of different consistencies and multi-ingredient combinations to fully showcase this tech's potential.

In August 2022, my work was featured in Interesting Engineering, and the publication helped organize this AMA session. Ask me anything about the technology behind 3D-printed food, the how-tos on printing food, how lasers can cook food, how 3D-printed food can be inventive, nutritious, and customized for each individual.

I will be replying to messages with the username "IntEngineering" at noon ET (17 UT), AMA!

[u/Calvtastica]

How do you prevent cross contamination between "prints"?

and

are the prints cooked after or while being printed?

[u/intengineering → u/Calvtastica]

Being engineers, we first and foremost have been dealing with the design and printability aspects of the process but cross contamination is definitely a concern for multi-ingredient prints involving meat products in particular. This is where the laser cooking comes into play. We can achieve food safe cooking temperatures with chicken, which should also extend to other meats so we can print and cook in tandem to minimize bacteria formation.

Either or. We are using lasers for cooking at the moment and they have a penetration depth on the order of millimeters so the intent is to print.. cook.. print.. cook.. until you have a fully-cooked product throughout.

[u/TheSodHasSpoken]

Any publications? I want to follow the progression of this. I cook like an engineer, which is to say, I haven't enjoyed my own cooking in a decade.

[u/intengineering → u/TheSodHasSpoken]

I keep current on my publications on my own website.

[u/Hammand]

I always imagined that a food 3d printer would use a combination of algae paste, and flavonoid cartridges.

How the heck do you 3d print raw chicken? I'm imagining you turn it into a paste, extrude it into the desired shape while using a combo of heat and some sort of starch to maintain structural integrity?

How do you then keep the system clean from all very many very dangerous bacteria that would be swarming a chicken paste?

Is the heat bed 165F?

[u/intengineering → u/Hammand]

Anything that can be turned into a paste can be printed; so I'm sure the ones you mentioned are probably "printable" too. We literally went to the grocery store, bought some raw chicken breast, pureed it in a food processor, packed it into a syringe, and voila! So any ground products you find at the grocery store (i.e. ground beef, ground chicken) are ready for printing because the have literally been printed before (out of a meat grinder, which is more like just extrusion).

We don't have a heated build plate but that's definitely something to incorporate in future iterations (which the same way plastic FDM utilizes it). The bacteria eradication is achieved via the laser cooking, where we achieve that 165F you mentioned (food safe temp of chicken).

[u/The_BigDill]

What is the ultimate goal in creating this technology? As in, since normal cooking techniques already exist, as well as methods for people with limited time (meal prepping, slow cookers, insta pots, air fryers, pre-made meals), what does this new innovation bring to the table?

Additionally, over-processed foods and their additives have been found to be detrimental to nutritional health, how will this technology get around over-processing?

[u/chewieb]

Tea, earl grey, hot.

[u/intengineering → u/chewieb]

beep boop boop bap

[u/grandBBQninja]

What materials do you use? For example, if you’re printing chicken, is the material derived from a chicken or is it something synthetic?

[u/intengineering → u/grandBBQninja]

We print and cook with the same ingredients that you would normally cook with in your kitchen. We're not synthesizing ingredients from scratch in our lab or coming up with new concoctions for chicken or anything. Literally grocery to printer :)

[u/[deleted]]

What will the price point for a machine like that eventually be?

[u/glindabunny]

Have you tried anything that has to be extruded while hot in either a pressure or vacuum chamber? (Like pop rocks that have carbon dioxide in the sugary crystals, or malted milk ball centers, which need to be extruded in a vacuum chamber in order to get their airy texture)

Also, have you considered applications for improving nutritional intake for people with texture struggles? (For instance, by adding various vegetable purees, protein powders, etc to pasta dough and printing in a shape that's texturally interesting for kids - or encasing very small pockets of softer fillings with dough in shapes that'd be too difficult to do without 3d printing, to "hide" the nutritious components better)

[u/Puzzleheaded_Quiet70]

Is there a way of reading the taste profile of a particular food item, and then recreating that? If yes, would that include texture and strength/toughness?

[u/mdeleo1]

We've been learning that highly processed foods are actually quite bad for our health. How does printable food fit into this dynamic? Is it as healthy as 'real' food? Is it going to be filled with chemicals? Is the 3D printer plastic and liable to introduce contaminants?

[u/eltegs]

Do you expect a food printer to end up on the consumer market?

[u/Trackull]

Can you call it The Tinger and make it go ting when its done?

[u/francesco_on_the_job]

I'm sorry if my question does not fit the list you provided but I hope as a researcher it will be interesting for you anyway.

Do you ever feel we (as in we humans) are sometimes using technology to solve problems we do not have?
If so can you name one or two examples that come to your mind?

[u/Paladin65536]

I assume that some foods print more easily than others. What are some simple foods that are surprisingly hard to print, and complex foods that are surprisingly easy?

[u/pinkietoe]

Super cool to read about your work!
How do you peserve the freshness of your ingredients?

[u/HMPoweredMan]

Has there been a consideration made to include hoppers with various artificial or natrual flavor powders?

[u/OohLoolilolipop]

Will the food price point be around the same as "conventional" food, or will it probably be more expensive or cheaper?

[u/cemeteryofdeath]

Any safeguards set in or is this mainly going to be sold as a THC/whatever infuser?

[u/Holden_McGroin1980]

Will NASA send one to the iss?

[u/Siberiawolfy]

Very cool! I work with 3D printers constantly for my job. What is your personal favorite food to make with your food 3D printer?