Develop emulsion-based 3D-printable food inks

Abstract

3D food printing (3DFP) is a relatively new branch of 3D printing that holds much promise. Currently, 3DFP is still relatively niche, generally appealing to novelty seekers who seek something “different”. There is much untapped potential for 3DFP in health/medical contexts. This project sets out to develop emulsion food foam inks for 3D food printing. The intended target audience is for dysphagia patients, who require easily swallowable foods due to their condition. Lemon is chosen as the main ingredient of the inks due to its plethora of health and practical benefits. A wide scope of food additives (lecithin, gelatin, xanthan gum, guar gum, transglutaminase) will be added to the base recipe and their individual effects on foaming ability, foam stability, and printability will be investigated. To characterise the inks, the ink samples’ performance in these three tests will be evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. In addition, rheology studies will be performed on selected ink samples to investigate flow behaviour. Ultimately, it is hoped that the inks can print attractive, customised food to complement current dysphagia meal solutions, resulting in food that dysphagia patients “want, rather than need, to eat”.