The future of 3D food printing: Opportunities for space applications

Abstract

Over the past decade or so, there have been major advances in the development of 3D printing technology to create innovative food products, including for printing foods in homes, restaurants, schools, hospitals, and even space flight missions. 3D food printing has the potential to customize foods for individuals based on their personal preferences for specific visual, textural, mouthfeel, flavor, or nutritional attributes. Material extrusion is the most common process currently used to 3D print foods, which is based on forcing a fluid or semi-solid food “ink” through a nozzle and then solidifying it. This type of 3D printing application for space missions is particularly promising because a wide range of foods can be produced from a limited number of food inks in a confined area. This is especially important for extended space missions because astronauts desire and require a variety of foods, but space and resources are minimal. This review highlights the potential applications of 3D printing for creating custom-made foods in space and the challenges that need to be addressed.

Keywords:

• 3D printing
• additive manufacturing
• food
• space
• astronauts

Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the Food Science department at University of Massachusetts Amherst. The researchers would like to also acknowledge John Zhang for his efforts in sourcing literature references cited within this manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment and the Food Science department at University of Massachusetts Amherst, under project number MAS00567. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA or NIFA.