3D-printed food will soon be a reality thanks to American manufacturer 3D Systems, who unveiled the world’s first 3D food printer at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas recently.
To be launched in the second half of 2014, the ‘Chefjet’ and ‘Chefjet Pro’ are the world’s first professionally certified and kitchen-ready printers, and were developed specially for pastries. They can print flavors like chocolate, vanilla, mint, cherry, sour apple, and watermelon.
3D Systems’ Liz von Hasseln said, “The machine uses an ink jet print head that’s just like the one you would find in your desktop 2D printer. It spreads a very fine layer of sugar then paints water onto the surface of the sugar, and that water allows the sugar to recrystalize and harden to form these complex geometries.”
The ‘ChefJet’ is aimed at the domestic market and will be priced at under US$5,000. It can produce single-color edible prints for food items like sugar cubes and cake decorations. The ‘ChefJet Pro’ can print full color prints at higher volumes and will retail at under US$10,000. Both printers come with Digital Cookbook software to help those unfamiliar with CAD modeling to print complex items.
With 3D printing set to be the next big thing of the future, it will be interesting to see how such machines will revolutionize the way food is made.
Learn more about the ‘Chefjet’ 3D food printer here. Would you buy such a printer?
[via Dezeen]