(Deep-fried space shuttle scallop produced via Cornell’s Fab@Home printer; image courtesy of Wired; Credit to Fab@Home; http://www.wired.com/2013/02/3-d-food-printer-space/)

What better way to end a series of blog posts than to take the technology as it relates to food and mesh it with space.  Straying off tangent, when the majority of “story” settings have been exhausted and ideas are scarce, we tend to see known characters taking their activities to the far reaches of space.  Here, we have had the treat to enjoy such gripping movies as Jason X (hope you can detect sarcasm here), where beloved masked cult horror icon, Jason Voorhees, takes his beloved activity of manslaughter and proceeds to do what he does best in space; even beloved game icon Mario has explored the reaches of space courtesy of the Mario Galaxy series of games.  This particular blog post will take 3D technology as it relates to food and highlight its potential use in the realm of space travel, and what it means for astronauts and their future meals.

Looking back to March’s initial post (BLOG EXPERT #1), I had briefly touched on NASA’s involvement in the 3D printing realm as they had offered a $125,000 grant for someone to design a printer that would be used by astronauts during their time in space.  Here, I had not really focused on this particular aspect as the post was meant to address the topic of 3D printing and cuisine at large, but it did allude to the fact that one of the primary hopes was to extend the shelf-life of food stuffs so that astronauts could partake in long journeys.  One of the issues facing space exploration and flight for extended periods of time is the fact that  astronauts aren’t receiving variety in their food offerings, and this issue is addressed by Michelle Terfansky, an astronautical engineer whom studied the potential and challenges of 3D printing as it applies to space; “…astronauts on the space station are eating the same seven days of food on rotations of two or three weeks.”  As a matter of fact, Michelle then mentions the fact that this issue is cause for concern as during long space missions, food, which is meant to act as a source of comfort to people, holds no variety and thus may add to the high-stress environment that is experienced during space endeavours.  Like many other previous blog posts have pointed out, the desire is to create food stuffs loaded with nutrients in order to benefit those consuming them, in this case astronauts.  However, limitations of the technology in its current state are always important to consider and this is something that many tend to overlook.  As it applies to food, such an issue was highlighted by Jeffery Lipton, a leader of Cornell’s Fab@Home lab, which partook in early tests of a 3D food printer with which the team produced printed bananas and mushrooms amongst other food items; “We quick;y ran into the yuck factor… It was the Uncanny Valley of food…  It was very close to, but still unlike, the cuisine people expected.”

 Gross enough? 🙂

 (Block of turkey paste produced via Cornell’s Fab@Home printer; image courtesy of Wired; Credit to Fab@Home; http://www.wired.com/2013/02/3-d-food-printer-space/)

Michelle sees 3D printing evolving to the point of being able to produce a variety of food items that mimic real food all via one machine within the next 5-10 years.  However,  Jeffery Lipton believes that this technology is still 15-20 years or more away, particularly to reach the point of being able to actually construct a full meal from nothing; he does see the technology being adopted first in places such as hospitals or space stations whee specific nutritional needs are required.  Thus, with all this mind it is important to note that the technology is still in infancy.  Current research and experimentation is actively being pursued by a variety of individuals and organizations to develop it into something feasible, practical, and just plain amazing so that all the “hopes” and “wishes” of 3D printing and its utilization in a variety of applications can come into fruition.  Innovative thinking, experimentation, and advances in technology all come into play for what lies in the future for the technology and this notion can be best summarized via a quote by Lipton; “It’s an exciting premise it’s just a long ways away….”

http://www.wired.com/2013/02/3-d-food-printer-space/

Dysphagia, as defined by Wikipedia, is the medical term for the difficulty associated with swallowing.  According to statistics provided by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, studies indicate that this issue affects approximately 22% of those aged 50 or over and that nearly 10 million Americans are diagnosed with swallowing difficulties.  This particular blog post will focus on how 3D printing technology, in its current capacity, can help improve the quality of life in those individuals affected by Dysphagia.

3D printing in the food world is mostly a concept that remains in constant refinement as the technology has not progressed to the point where it can replace the “wonderful” manual processes of shopping for ingredients and food stuffs, preparing them, and the cooking process itself (only applicable if you aren’t a proponent of raw foodism of course).  A lot of potential exists in the 3D printing realm for creating “super-foods” fortified with extra nutrients and solid macro-nutrient profiles, but it doesn’t serve to actually improve one’s quality of life due to the confines of the technology and what foods it can realistically apply to at this point-in-time aside from cost and efficiency considerations.  Dysphagia as defined earlier is the difficulty of swallowing as the larynx fails to close properly during the process and food goes into the lungs rather than the stomach which results in serious health complications including death.  A company by the name of Biozoon Food Innovations based in Germany is looking to help those affected by the problem by providing a printer that is capable of creating easily digestible food which maintains the shape and texture of the actual food product it is intended to mimic.

(All pictures courtesy of http://biozoon.de/en/products/seneopro/#prettyPhoto)

According to Matthias Kuck, the CEO of Biozoon Food Innovations in nursing homes an estimated 60% of people suffer from this particular problem and are thus fed “porridge-like food” which creates a problem as they often see other residents not affected by the issue eat “real” solid food items such as chicken and vegetables.  Consequently, Matthias says that in nursing homes meals themselves tend to be extremely important social events as many individuals meet together and eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner together.  It can be seen that for such an individual whom suffers from the disorder and is not able to actually partake in such a task as to eat real food stuffs such as that of their fellow residents can take an emotional toll that can potentially lead to physical problems such as depression.  This project entitled “PERFORMANCE” is a collaborative project headed by Biozoon and supported by the European Union and it aims to primarily aid the elderly meet nutritional needs; “…to develop and validate a holistic, personalized food supply chain for frail elderly in nursing homes, ambient assisted living facilities or at home (served by nursing services).”  The project has been a work in process since 2012 and aims for completion by the end of 2015 with 3D food printer technology having been developed to the point of providing appetizing and safe food items.  Here, Kuck holds that elderly residents will have the option of picking from a variety of different menus weekly with the meals having been produced in a manufacturing plant prior to delivery via the 3D printer technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphagia

http://www.asha.org/research/reports/dysphagia/

http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/105482_en.html

http://horizon-magazine.eu/article/transforming-mealtimes-3d-printed-food_en.html