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

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2014 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Food Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.