Scientists are 3D-printing cheesecake. Is this the future of food?

The researchers argue that food-printing allows users greater control over the nutrition of their meals, reduces the risk of food-borne illness, cuts down on costs and more.

“I think this (method) actually brings you closer to the food,” Jonathan Blutinger, the study’s lead author and a robotics engineer from Columbia University’s Creative Machines Lab, told the Star.

“Sure, it’s made by a robot and not a human necessarily, but how many times do you go to a restaurant” and not know what goes into a dish, he said.

“This brings you right next to the food and allows you to control all the base elements,” Blutinger continued. “You can see it being created right in front of you and you can dial up or scale down every micro or macronutrient you want.”

The food printer his team designed functions like an ordinary 3D printer, except it comes equipped with a laser for baking and extrudes blobs of peanut butter and fruit puree instead of molten plastic.

Their hardware “isn’t terribly innovative,” Blutinger said — it’s the machine’s software that shines. One of the lab’s main innovations is creating a program that can follow complex recipes and move the robot in precise, intricate patterns, he continued.

Food-printing isn’t without its limitations. In order for the machine to work, all the ingredients must be in the form of a paste that can be squeezed through the printer. For example, the researchers’ cheesecake consisted of: graham cracker paste, peanut butter, cake frosting, Nutella, banana puree, strawberry jam and cherry drizzle.

Blutinger said his team is also working on making their printer compatible with powders and liquid sprays. For now, “anything that can be put into a paste or a liquid can be printed.”

Creating a structurally-sound cheesecake from paste comes with unique difficulties. It took Blutinger’s team at least six different attempts to get the process just right — earlier versions either collapsed from lack of support or ended with squiggly lines due to improper calibration or drying.

What eventually worked was building the cake “like a house,” Blutinger said — first creating compartments from harder or more viscous ingredients to support the softer paste within.

“It tasted pretty sweet,” he continued, adding that it tasted like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “It wasn’t like your conventional cheesecake, it didn’t have cream cheese ... what was interesting about it was all of the flavours kind of hit your mouth in different ways, because they were compartmentalized in many different pockets within the structure.”

In the future, Blutinger sees 3D-printing making a big impact on the plant-based meats industry since it allows finer control over the distribution of ingredients. It can also reduce food waste, as users would only be printing ingredients they intend to consume, his study found.

While other companies have debuted food printing technology, including a NASA-funded start-up that 3D-printed pizza, Blutinger’s printer stands out because it can also cook the food it produces with the use of a laser.

This is a big step forward for 3D food printing, which deals with various ingredients all requiring different degrees of targeted heating, often immediately after being squeezed out, the paper read. With its high level of control and precise targeting, lasers are an ideal solution, Blutinger said.

As the technology rapidly develops, Blutinger’s team believes the “3D printer may become a staple home and industrial cooking device,” according to their study.

Blutinger hopes his research inspires more people invested in the technology. “I think it’ll get people thinking that they need to stay with this wave, because it’s already coming and it’s already here.

“I see this already happening in restaurants,” he said of high-end restaurants including U.K.-based Food Ink, which claims to 3D print everything including food, tables and cutlery; the Michelin-starred Mélisse Restaurant in Santa Monica, Calif.; and La Enoteca and La Boscana, both in Spain.

“Software hasn’t really touched food in a big way, but anytime software touches an industry, we never look back,” Blutinger said.