The 3D printing technique is among the most recent technologies that have applications across various industries. From just a digital file, an actual solid 3-dimension object can be created using 3d printing technology. And as it might have clicked in your mind, the tech is today benefiting the baking industry a great deal. This is because today, 3D printing technology is being used to create cookie cutters in more economical, convenient, and cost-effective approach.
Is the use of 3d printers the future of baking? Here are some pointers you ought to read regarding cookie cutters and food created using 3d printers.
1. The benefits of creating food and cookie cutters using 3d printers
The benefits of 3d printing of cookie cutters are endless in the art of baking. Since these printers come with digital instructions, the user finds is less challenging to create a custom designed cookie cutter with the shape and size of their preference. Whether you’d like to surprise your family with creatively designed daschund cookies or delight your guests with panda shaped cookies, it’s all in your hands. Thanks to the highly reliable precision of these printers, you can bake your cookies in any design or shape without having to leave your home or wait weeks after ordering cookie cutters from a manufacturer. This is because the appearance from the 3D printer relies on a model, which is used to instruct your printer. For this reason, a wide range of decorations, textures, and shapes can be produced. In other words, it is faster, time-saving, convenient, and more reliable to use a 3d printer to create cookie cutters. This makes baking easier and more customized to the baker’s preferences. Additionally, 3D printers have made the preparation of processed food simpler compared to the use of traditional techniques.
2. The various types of food created using 3D printing
These days, 3D printers have become more available to clients and small enterprises at a reasonable price. For this reason, creative individuals are coming up with new methods of printing food, leading to the rise of new types and designs of foods. For instance, 3d printing has become tremendously popular in the preparation of new creatively designed foodstuffs, including candies, sugar decorations, and chocolate delicacies, just to name a few. So what are some of the foods created using 3d printing?
- Chocolate – Thanks to new tech advancements, you can now make chocolates using 3d printers. Despite the fact that chocolate printers can be considerably expensive, this does not stop professionals from coming up with cake decorations. ChocoByte, for instance, used to be a small tool, which was used to make chocolates. The chocolate medium was heated a hot water bath or microwave to make it ideal for the printer. This allowed you to make a single chocolate bar in as little as 10 minutes or less depending the printer’s brand and model. However, modern, more effective versions (including prototypes that are still being developed) have hit the market. This chocolate can also be shaped into various designs using a 3d-printed cutter or even used in between pieces of cookies designed using a 3d printed cookie cutter.
- Cake decorations, centerpieces, and sugar candies – Today, we also have 3d printers that can create cake decorations. Centerpieces, and sugar candies. This involves spreading the powdered sugar coating ingredients on your printer, spraying food color, flavorants, and water to make a fine paste that can solidify. These printers are highly ideal for professional bakers and cake decoration designers. ChefJet is a good example of a printer designed to do just this.
- Puréed foodstuffs – Foodini is a good example of printers that use thick liquids or puréed materials as the printing medium. The printer turns this medium into various shapes that would consume way much more time to make were you to use your bare hands. How nutritious the resulting food is will be dependent on your purée’s composition. However, this printer is mostly used in the selected places in commercial settings.
- Food projects for NASA’s group – Have you ever wondered what astronauts survive on when out there conducting their space missions? Well, one might argue that the last human space mission was controversially years or decades ago, but space mission projects remain active in many countries of the world. And in case NASA was to send a manned spaceship in their next mission to explore planet Mars, oxygen wouldn’t be the astronauts sole most important concern. Food would certainly be a huge concern too. But it would require more than the conventional refrigeration method to preserve food in the hotter planet near the core of the milky way galaxy. In this case, 3d printing could be highly resourceful. This would involve packaging dry food nutrients, which would then be mixed with water to and some flavoring agents to create a printing medium to create 3d printed food in Space.
- Meat printing – This might wow you as it did me, but yes, meat can actually be printed! This is because meat comes from living animal cells. It is based on the fact that unspecialized stem cells can be used to produce more specialized cells upon being correctly stimulated. For example, a cow’s stem cell might be triggered to manufacture muscle cells. Although the technique is still undergoing extensive experiments, it will be prudent in the near future. 3d printers such as the bioprinter have actually been shown to be promising in the future production of 3d printed meat.
In sum, 3d printing technology is already being applied in baking and food production as we speak, even though not as directly as it ought to be. And with inspiration from the pointers above, one thing’s for sure – the world can be a better place when people realize that the advantages of using modern high-tech printers not only in the preparation of food, but also in its production. Despite the various drawbacks such as the suspicions on safety, the pros largely seem to overshadow the cons. Hence, 3D printing might remain a mainstream approach of making foodstuffs; anyway, it’s just a matter of time. Nonetheless, we can make the most of what we have in our homes, office places, and commercial eateries before that happens. We can utilize it in making cookie cutters for our delicious treats. And if you ever need some inspiration on cookie cutter shapes to delight your guest or family with your own customized cookies, maybe cookie cutter designs by Jawstec can shed some light!