The Edible Growth project: a study into sustainable, healthy 3D printed food, from 3Ders.org, by Dutch industrial designer Chloé Rutzerveld:
…Rather than convenience, health and nature are thus key in the Edible Growth project, which really lets you think differently about 3D food printing. While the project has not yet moved beyond the research & development stages due to technological and monetary constraints, this alone is makes it a very intriguing concept that is definitely worth checking out. Perhaps the real future of 3D food printing can be found in it.
As Rutzerveld explained to 3ders.org, ‘The concept of Edible Growth shows that we can create healthy, natural and sustainable food when combining science – design – technology and food. People always think that food coming from the lab, or from factories is unnatural, not tasteful and unhealthy, which does not have to be the case! Edible Growth shows real growth, an intensifying flavour and structure and makes smart use of natural activities (fermentation – photosynthesis etc. ) to lower the use of resources.’
The idea is thus to create an edible product that is both natural, nutritious and delicious. As she rightly told us, ‘the future of 3D printing food does not only have to be about printing with sugar or other unhealthy sweets or pasta.’ By making food printing diverse and actually good for us, we can lower the amount of resources needed for the food industry. ‘To reduce the entire food chain, to reduce food waste and start feeding people instead of filling people. […]. In theory these novelty foods will be even more natural, fresh, sustainable, animal-friendly, tasty and exiting than the food we know today. Edible Growth addresses current food trends, shortens supply chains and increases the eating experience.’
….For this, Rutzerveld came up with an ingenious solution: why not print a combination of seeds, spores and yeasts to create an environment of natural growth wherein living organisms develop the food on-demand? 3D printing is an exceptionally suitable technology to achieve this, and not just because it can automatically combine these elements into a nice shape…..
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!
