i'm here today to talk to youabout 3d food printing. if you google "3d-printed food," photosof my work will show up on the first page. i am internationally asked to givepresentations about food printing, and i'm even nominated for several awards. but you know, the strange thing is,
how does 3d food printing work, that i never operated a single3d food printer in my life. and to make it even stranger, i might be one of the most skepticalpersons towards the printing of food. i'm a food designer, a passionate cook,
and i'm highly fascinated about nature. today my whole life revolves around food, around healthy eating, cooking,experimenting and reading about it. i just love the bright colors,the way it grows and transforms, the way it smells, and the endlesstaste combinations. i think designing with food is oneof the most intimate forms of design, because people can actually eat design and experience itthrough all of their senses. but what interests me mostas a food designer
is a combination between the aspectsof food and science and technology. through my work, i show possible waysof using new technologies to enhance our food system,instead of producing more fast food. so i use technological and scientificknowledge to think of new ways to make our food more efficient,healthy and sustainable. and if you look around, you'll see i'm not the only onewho is so obsessed with food. as a result of a continuouslygrowing world population and an increasing ecologicalfootprint of man on earth,
many engineers, scientists, artists,designers and chefs are looking for solutions to solve world food problems - for example, the consumptionof alternative animal proteins, like algae or insects; the development of new production methods,like growing crops vertically under led lightwith specific light recipes; or as already mentioned, the developmentof new production techniques, like 3d food printing. and before i continue talkingabout 3d-printed food,
i would like to ask you something: who here thinks that more people worldwide suffer from malnutritionthan from obesity? well, it actually turns outthat there are more people suffering from obesitythan from malnutrition, and even though governmentsand food manufacturers know this as well, these are a couple of examples of products that are currently being producedby these food printers. so whereas already too many peoplesuffer from obesity
or can't afford freshfruits or vegetables, a lot of time, money and resourcesare invested in the development of fancy-looking shapesof chocolate, dough and sugar. and even nasa has investeda major amount of money in the developmentof a 3d food-printing company who's currently printing pizzas. so is it just me, or do you also thinkthat that's totally ridiculous? (laughter) i truly believe that we canbenefit from technology,
and that technology can actually solveworld food problems and do something good. but not if technology is merely usedas a cool gadget to reshape unhealthy processed foodsinto a fancy shape. i came in contact with the worldof food printing when i was asked by the netherlands organizationfor applied scientific research to think about an innovative3d-printed food product. they were going to present this productduring an annual food pioneer event, and at that time i was stillan industrial design [student] at the eindhoven university of technology.
i was both flattered and surprised to be asked by such a well-knownresearch institute to collaborate with them on this food project. to give a short explanation: printing food is basically the building upof a product layer by layer, by depositing a material or by using a laser or liquidsto fixate layers of powder. so when i found out moreabout these different methods, the products already producedand the added value,
i wasn't exactly impressed,and to be honest, i was even kind of disappointedby the uselessness of the machines, and the unhealthy productsthey are creating. so i didn't want to spend my timeon the development of a new fancy-looking shapeof chocolate or dough. but instead, i decided to use the networkof the research institute to think about how we can usethis technology in a more useful way. so what i did is i combinedhigh-tech production methods with authentic practicesof growing and breeding food.
because i just told youabout the different methods, and the problem with these methodsis that you need to mash up or grind the food first, before you can process it. and also additives - and in some caseseven liquid nitrogen - are necessary to successfully print these food productsyou just saw in the pictures. so i figured the only possible wayto produce food that is natural - and in fact, also healthy -with these new technologies, would be to startwith the basic raw material, and let nature take its course.
so that's what i did. i designed a 3d-printed foodconcept called "edible growth," that uses the printer merely as a toolto facilitate and enhance the natural. the printer will build upa growth-enabling structure, like an edible ecosystem, that will grow and transformat the consumer's house. the basic idea is to printa carbohydrate support structure with an edible breeding groundthat contains seeds, spores and yeast. the organisms will beseparated from each other
by a membrane that prevents contamination, but allows the seeds and sporesto access the breeding ground. so this whole product will be printeddirectly inside a recyclable greenhouse, and you, as consumers, will takethe recycleable greenhouse home, and simply place it on your windowsill. on your windowsill, natural processes like photosynthesisor fermentation will start, and the yeast will slowly transform a solid core into a liquid,
while the seeds develop into sprouts,and the spores, into mushrooms. within the next couple of days, the technical straight linesof the support structure will be covered by these naturaland organic-looking shapes of the mushrooms and the sprouts. and these changes in physical appearanceshow the development of the taste, scent, structure and the entireeating experience of the product. so as a consumer, you can decidewhen to harvest and eat your product. you could decide to eat iton the third day,
or if you like a more intense taste, you could harvest and eatthe product on the fifth day. it's like roquefort cheese or wine, that the intensity of the productwill age over time. so every day it will becomea little bit stronger, which you can also see on the developmentof the physical appearance. so a product like edible growthwill make it very easy to go from eating microwave dishes to growing and harvestingyour own food at home.
and a product like edible growthwill not only give you more insight into your food production, and also allow youto harvest your own food, but it also has a lotof environmental benefits. [environmental benefits -agricultural land - water and energy] [food miles - food waste -absolute freshness - consumer involvement] [pre-packaging and distribution -financial and ecological benefits] if the product grows and transformsat the consumer's house, far less agricultural land and waterare necessary to grow the product.
and also food miles will be reduced, because the food doesn't have to travelfrom the farm to the distribution center, from the distribution center to the store, and from the store to your house. and because the productwill be printed on demand, no food needs to be stored. so that also means that no foodcan turn bad or expire. so it will also reduce food waste. also pre-packaging and packagingwill be unnecessary,
because the recyclable greenhousecan be used over and over again. and these are just a couple of examplesof how a product like edible growth offers financial and ecological benefits. at this point in the historyof food printing, edible growth is the first ideafor healthy - and in fact, sustainable - printed food productsthat actually add something to solving the world food problem. at this point, prototypes are travelingthe world from expo to expo, and the project receivesa massive amount of media attention.
and it's all due to the fact that it's the only healthy and sustainable3d-printed food product. and even though edible growth productis not ready for consumers yet, because more research needs to be doneon the material composition, the software and the hardware, it inspires a lot of scientists,artists, designers and also chemists to look beyond what's currently possible with 3d printing technologiesfor food production. and within the next couple of monthsa german research company,
and also from a university -how is it called? - and also from a german university,the professor and the phd students are going to first developthe material composition, and afterwards they will look intothe software and the hardware development. so perhaps, within the next two years it will be possible to eata product like edible growth. so my point is, that many peopleare very skeptical towards the use of high-techin food production. they think the more artificialor the more technology,
the more artificial, the more sugarand the more additives the food contains. but that doesn't necessarilyhave to be the case. because i think most of you forgetthat everything we eat is actually designed by man. everything we eat is technology. farming is technology.agriculture is also technology. but we started to see these technologiesas natural, as nature. so perhaps the influence of these newhigh-tech production methods doesn't have to be bad or unhealthy.
we should use thesenew technologies to our advantage
to create healthy, efficientand more sustainable food to reduce the ecologicalfootprint of man on earth. thank you. (applause)
