Why you should read this: Because one of the most interesting food 3D printers will be launching a crowdfunding campaign soon.

Food 3D printers are getting more and more popular with chefs. Top restaurants around the world use them to make and present signature dishes. Currently, there are several food 3D printer on the market (i.e. Chefjet Pro, The Choc Creator 2.0). More food 3D printers launched with the help of Kickstarter (like the Bocusini) and will appear on the market soon.

Enter the Nufood Robot, which could deliver a breakthrough to the consumer market. The 3D food printer was developed by a Cambridge-based company called Dovetailed (All3DP reported). Inspired by foodies, chefs and tech lovers, Nufood designed and built a new type of kitchen robot.

Instead of extruding an edible paste, it uses a process called spherification. A sodium rich gel (like sodium alginate) is introduced to a cold solution of calcium chloride, causing a delicate skin to form. It contains the gel inside without altering the taste. Chefs like Ferran Adrià is made this technique of “jellification” and “solidification” of liquids popular in molecular gastronomy. The results are “flavor bombs” – reduced to give your the maximum of taste.

A Specialist for Your Kitchen

Dovetailed’s kitchen machine can create delicious, juicy bites from a sauce, juice or other liquids. It probably won’t let you 3D print a steak but lets you forge flavours in a personalised form to enhance meals and cocktails.

Dovetailed claim they invented a new technique, on which they have an international patent pending. Their technique differs as it allows 3D structures to be built from liquids that keep their form until you bite into them and release the contained flavours. They encapsulate liquid in small droplets and then use these droplets to create a structure. The 3D food printer can even mix multiple liquids during the same print. For example, printing a strawberry with a strip of cream or maybe two, because one never knows how much cream or strawberry make the best combination.

You wouldn’t want to have a whole meal printed by this food 3D printer. But it should go extremely well when combined with other food. In experiments carried out by its inventor, Dr. Gabriel Villar, these spheres were made using a flavored strawberry juice and subsequently assembled to form an artificial fruit with the shape of a … raspberry. That’s nice, isn’t it?

Crowdfunding Campaign Will Start Soon

Currently, the Nufood Robot is still in development. But the plan is to launch a crowdfunding campaign soon, going into mass production next year.

The price of the product, Dovetailed states, will be similar to a high-end consumer espresso machine.

One interesting aspect of the soon-to-come campaign is to be found in the social aspect of eating. If you own a smartphone, “you can download the latest creations from renowned chefs straight onto your phone or tablet and replicate them in your kitchen with the click of a button. Using our app, you can create and share your designs effortlessly”.

 

What do you think: Would you like to have one of these 3D food printers in your kitchen? We’d like to hear your tasty comments.