German Old Folks’ Homes Are Serving 3-D Printed Food

From swirly corn chips to sour apple sugared candies, you can 3-D print practically any kind of grub. But aside from the obvious—like computer-generated cake icing—3-D food printers have reached new heights. Just like a coffee machine or a microwave, you can score your own Natural Machine’s Foodini (only $1,400!) or, if you’re an astronaut, you can get an outer space 3-D pizza printer from NASA, which costs $125,000. Anyway, if oozing goo from the pores of a printer doesn’t sound appetizing, it can be a life saver.

Photos courtesy of Biozoon

Over in Germany, 3-D food printing has hit the weirdest heights. One project fills the cartridges of a 3-D printer with liquefied veggies, meat, and carbs for a cuisine called Smoothfood. Created for senior citizens in old folks’ homes, the meals are made from fresh ingredients—asparagus, meat, potatoes—which are then puréed for patients who have difficulties chewing and swallowing. Instead of making the meals in nursing home kitchens, they’re custom made off-site in a printing plant in a Dutch city called Nijmegen, ordered through a QR code, and served on plastic plates. Typically, these meals would be hard to digest for people with dysphagia, so as the food melts in their mouths the patients are saved from choking.

We spoke with Sandra Forstner, the project manager at Biozoon, about the taste of 3-D printed food and the favorite meals in old folks’ homes.

MUNCHIES: What kind of plates do you serve in the nursing homes? Can you give an example of what is on the menu? Do you use gelatin so the food keeps its shape? agar-agar How does the 3-D printer produce the food? Foodjet Can you explain how you can adjust the printer to make it taste and look like the real thing? Where did you get the printer or was it made with SeneoPro? What’s the PERFORMANCE project? The consortium Is everything produced by Biozoon and SeneoPro? Hochschule Weihenstephan-Triesdorf Right. Do you have 3-D printing chefs in each nursing home? Or is the pre-prepared food delivered? If this is for patients with dysphagia, does it appeal to anyone else? How many scientists are with the company? on the website— OK. Have you tried the food? What does it taste like?