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FrançaisFood 3D printing: 6 food 3D printers available this year
What is food 3D printing?
Although it may sound like something from a sci-fi movie, food 3D printers do actually exist. Edible 3D printing is becoming more and more popular not only for professionals but also for personal use. That said, how does food 3D printing work? To what extent is it similar to standard 3D printing?
Most food 3D printers use extrusion 3D printing technology, much like regular desktop FFF (FDM) 3D printers. Instead of using plastic material, though, food 3D printers use paste-type ingredients. The most common ingredients are chocolate, pancake batter, and cream, although there are many other possibilities (even pizza!). They are 3D printed layer after layer, generally through a syringe-like extruder.
To get a better overview of this niche, we have put together a comprehensive list of food 3D printers on the market. This selection is based on available food 3D printers under $6,000. We also mention a few other food customization solutions, including coffee 3D printing, food ornament 3D printing, and 3D printing food molds.
Bon appétit!
Best food 3D printers available on the market
| Brand | Product | Build size | Country | Price
Approximate starting prices based on supplier-provided information and public data. Prices may vary by region, over time and do not include additional products or services (taxes, shipping, accessories, training, installation, …).
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micromake | Food 3D printer | 100 × 100 × 15 mm | – | $ 999 | Quote |
| Choc Edge | Choc Creator V2.0 Plus | 180 × 180 × 40 mm | – | $ 2,380 | Quote |
| ZMorph
Product data validated by the manufacturer.
| VX | 250 × 235 × 165 mm | Poland | $ 2,799 | Quote |
| byFlow | Focus | 208 × 228 × 150 mm | Netherlands | $ 3,630 | Quote |
| Natural Machines | Foodini | 250 × 165 × 120 mm | Spain | $ 4,000 | Quote |
| Mmuse | Chocolate 3D printer | 160 × 120 × 150 mm | – | $ 5,499 | Quote |
The products in the table are ranked by price (low to high).
| Brand | Product | Build size | Country | Price
Approximate starting prices based on supplier-provided information and public data. Prices may vary by region, over time and do not include additional products or services (taxes, shipping, accessories, training, installation, …).
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micromake | Food 3D printer | 100 × 100 × 15 mm | – | $ 999 | Get a quote |
| Choc Edge | Choc Creator V2.0 Plus | 180 × 180 × 40 mm | – | $ 2,380 | Get a quote |
| ZMorph
Product data validated by the manufacturer.
| VX | 250 × 235 × 165 mm | Poland | $ 2,799 | Get a quote |
| byFlow | Focus | 208 × 228 × 150 mm | Netherlands | $ 3,630 | Get a quote |
| Natural Machines | Foodini | 250 × 165 × 120 mm | Spain | $ 4,000 | Get a quote |
| Mmuse | Chocolate 3D printer | 160 × 120 × 150 mm | – | $ 5,499 | Get a quote |
Pros and cons of food 3D printing
Benefits of 3D printing food
Time-saving
Edible 3D printing can be less time-consuming than traditional cooking. Indeed, users can launch a food 3D print and move on to other activities. Once the food 3D print is launched, there is no more need for manual operation.
Customization
Food 3D printing enables users to customize their food according to special events or simply to their mood. It can vary from writing a name on a birthday cake to 3D printing a heart-shaped pancake, for instance.
Creativity
Edible 3D printing enables cooking aficionados to unleash even more creativity in the kitchen. Users can imagine and actually create intricate designs. Amazing 3D-printed food artwork already exists!
Limits to food 3D printers
Type of food
Not just any sort of food can be 3D printed. The food must be in the form of a paste, such as cream or mashed potatoes.
Partial cooking
The 3D printing process doesn’t encompass every step of a meal’s preparation. For instance, food 3D printers cannot bake a cake or sprinkle oregano over a pizza.
Price
Food 3D printers are a bit expensive, generally in a price range between $1,000 and $5,000 (although there are exceptions).
Risk of failure
Just like with any other type of 3D printing, food 3D prints can be unsuccessful – too bad if it’s a birthday cake!
Food 3D printers: overview
The byFlow Focus is a compact food 3D printer made by byFlow, a Dutch 3D printing company specialized in edible 3D printing. This food 3D printer targets mostly professionals in the bakery industry.
The Focus works with refillable cartridges containing any kind of paste-type food to create customized meals. Furthermore, users have the possibility to access downloadable recipes.
The Choc Edge Choc Creator is a chocolate 3D printer targeting mostly professionals in chocolate and confectionery industries.
In addition, Choc Edge develops three apps, CHOC DRAW, MIX & MATCH and CHOC TEXT, to help users to draw and write on their chocolate 3D prints. A slicing software, ChocPrint, is also available.
The Micromake Food 3D printer can 3D print all kinds of paste-type ingredients, such as tomato sauce, chocolate sauce, and salad sauce. Also, the removable heated build plate is able to bake ingredients such as pancake batter.
The Mmuse Chocolate 3D printer is a closed-framed chocolate 3D printer made by Muse, a manufacturer from China. This 3D printer uses chocolate beans as consumables: they melt in the extruder, just as with regular FFF/FDM 3D printing.
The Natural Machines Foodini is a 3D printer able to 3D print all kinds of paste-type food. Users can fill the Foodini’s capsules with any type of paste food they wish.
Furthermore, if users choose a specific Foodini recipe, the 3D printer gives instructions on which ingredients to insert into the capsules.
Thanks to its thick-paste extruder, the ZMorph VX can 3D print ceramics as well as food!
This multifunctional 3D printer is indeed able 3D print with chocolate, cookie dough, cream cheese, frosting and more.
In addition to paste extrusion, the VX is features CNC milling and laser engraving capabilities.
Special mention: Cakewalk
- Materials: chocolate, meringue, royal icing, ketchup, guacamole, cream cheese, butter, mashed vegetables, Swiss butter cream
- Price:
- During KS campaign: €49 to €89
- After KS = €119
Cakewalk 3D is a precise and practical extruder that converts your desktop 3D printer into a food printer. The screw-in extruder is designed to be easily installed on any type of Cartesian 3D printer. All parts are food-safe and easily washable in your dishwasher.
To adapt Cakewalk 3D to your printer, you just need to 3D print 3 or 4 pieces of support in plastic. Disassembling your plastic extruder, screwing in the support parts, and connecting the motor to your card takes less than 30 min. The extruder then works with your usual slicer.
Cakewalk3D Kickstarter campaign
Edible 3D printing: who is it for?
Restaurants and bakeries
Edible 3D printing is indeed very useful for professionals in the food industry. 3D printed food can be attractive to new customers seeking different food experiences. A restaurant serving 3D-printed food, the Food Ink. pop-up store already exists.
Industrial food production
In the industrial food production sector, edible 3D printing allows manufacturers to vary their product ranges with new creations. Furthermore, food 3D printers can achieve a high level of precision. Barilla, an Italian food company, 3D prints some of its pasta products.
Food 3D printing at home
Food 3D printers are also adapted for personal use. They allow for more creativity in the kitchen with food customization.
What food can be 3D printed?
Ingredients
Virtually any type of fresh food can be 3D printed as long as it’s a paste, or “purée”. For instance, ingredients could be:
- Chocolate, candy and sugars
- Pancake batter or cookie dough
- Dairy products
- Pasta, wheats and grains
- Fruits and vegetables
Even pizza can be partly 3D printed! However, users will have to sprinkle their favorite toppings manually.
Food 3D models
To 3D print food, we can let our imagination take over. Users indeed have the opportunity to create their own food 3D models with special CAD software. However, it is also possible to directly download any 3D model on dedicated STL file websites.
How much does a food 3D printer cost?
Food 3D printer price
There are various price points for food 3D printers. Prices can depend on the food 3D printer’s build volume and/or on the variety of 3D printable ingredients it is compatible with.
In general, the minimum price for a food 3D printer is around $1,000 (although the PancakeBot is available for under $400). However, prices may decrease in the future, just as they have for regular extrusion (FFF/FDM) 3D printers.
Other promising food 3D printing applications
Here are a few industries where food 3D printing is already beneficial.
Sustainable food
Food 3D printing could be a part of the answer to the world hunger crisis. Indeed, some food 3D printers use hydrocolloids as a consumable.
This chemical, gel-like substance can mimic food. 3D printed meals with hydrocolloids could also include sustainable ingredients, such as algae.
Medical
As explained above, certain food 3D printers use hydrocolloids to create different shapes and textures for meals. Also, like the EU’s PERFORMANCE program is proving, it can be very useful to make softer meals for people with chewing or digestion problems, especially elders.
In addition, medicine can be presented in the shape of yummy food, instead of pills or powder.
Army
The US Army is carrying out scientific research to provide personalized food for their soldiers.
According to Lauren Oleksyk, a food technologist leading the team at the Army’s Natick research center, a sensor installed in soldiers’ bodies could detect their specific dietary needs. This sensor would be interfaced with a food 3D printer, to produce customized meals.
Aerospace: NASA food 3D printer
Beehex, an American startup, has received a grant from NASA to develop a food 3D printer.
Indeed, the aerospace agency aims to allow astronauts to produce their own food during long-term space missions to go to Mars!
3D printed food ecosystem
Food ornament 3D printers
Coffee 3D printers: 3D printing on coffee
There seems to be no connection between the portrait of the Mona Lisa and coffee. However, thanks to coffee 3D printers, it is possible to see the beautiful smiling lady in a cup of coffee. Indeed, a combination between 3D printing and inkjet printing technologies allows these machines to draw images on top of any foam-covered beverage.
As such, the Ripple Maker, a coffee 3D printer made by Ripples, can help users print “their own selfies, favorite quotes, or special messages and images on their drinks”. Another existing coffee printer is the Lixian 3D CafeMaker.
Cake ornament 3D printers
Bakery industry professionals also use 3D printers to adorn cakes or pastries. Thanks to edible sheets of paper and ink, any kind of image (including photos) can be 3D printed to decorate cakes.
Food extruders
If users already have an FFF 3D printer at home, another solution exists to 3D print food: food extruders. These tools generally feature universal compatibilities with regular extrusion 3D printers. Some of them, such as the Structur3D Discov3ry, allow 3D print with non-only edible food and clay, silicone, etc. An open-source extruder, the BotBQ Extruder, can 3D print raw meat – a good fit for your future barbecue!
3D printed food molds
3D printers can also 3D print very useful tools for food production: this is the case of 3D printed food molds. Users can create their own molds and print them in 3D to customize cakes, for example.
Conclusion
Food 3D printers are suitable for professional, industrial, and personal use-cases. Only paste-type ingredients are printable, but a wide range of food – from pizzas to cakes – can be created. As 3D-printed food can be customized according to users’ needs, it can be helpful in many fields, such as medicine.
3D printed food may also represent a hope for the world hunger crisis in the future. What food 3D printers are still missing is the ability to actually cook or bake. That is why cooking robots could be more and more popular in the future.
