3D food printing has demonstrated its capability on making personalised chocolates or producing simple homogenous snacks. However, these applications are still primitive with limited internal structures or monotonous textures. It is necessary to develop a systematic way to investigate printing materials, platform design, printing technologies and their influences on food fabrication. Meanwhile, the food design process should be structured to promote user's creativity, the fabrication process should be quantified to achieve consistent fabrication results, and a simulation model should be developed to link design and fabrication with nutrient control. With the development of an interactive open web-based user interface, food printers may become part of an ecology system, where networked machines can order new ingredients, prepare favorite food on demand and even collaborate with doctors to develop healthier diets.
This paper reviews food printing development from conceptual design till available commercial machines. The two printing platforms are employed, and both natively printable materials and nonprintable traditional food materials are used for printing experiment. Although quite a number of food printing technologies are available, there is still a long way to further develop them for commercial usage. From this technology review, it can be seen that food printing may exert a significant influence
on various types of food processing, which allow designers/users to manipulate forms and materials with enhanced and unprecedented capability. This versatility, applied to domestic cooking or catering service, can improve efficiency to deliver high quality, freshly-prepared food items to consumers,deliver personalized nutrition and enable users to develop new flavors, textures and shapes to create entirely new eating experiences.