The food printer seems to be one of those lustrous concepts that continues to pop-up in the fantasy of techno-connoisseurs. Some years ago James King already proposed a printed designers steak after being inspired by the disembodied cuisine project. Since then we have seen inkjet printed sushi, the candy printer and the Philips molecular food printer.
While some are already dreaming of printing human organs, we are still waiting for an affordable food printer to arrive in our kitchen. Perhaps the folks from the MIT fluid interfaces group can take bake the cake with their Cornucopia Food printer concept.“Cornucopia is a concept design for a personal food factory that brings the versatility of the digital world to the realm of cooking. In essence, it is a three dimensional printer for food, which works by storing, precisely mixing, depositing and cooking layers of ingredients.” According to researchers Marcelo Coelho and Amit Zoran, who are now working on the printer, the cooking process starts with an array of food canisters that refrigerate and store your favorite ingredients, waiting to be piped into a mixer and extruder head that can accurately deposit different combinations of food.
As the deposition takes place, the food is heated or cooled. This process allows for the creation of flavors and textures that would be completely unimaginable through other cooking techniques and gives you ultimate control over the origin, quality, nutritional value and taste of every meal.
Source: www.nextnature.net