Researchers develop 3D printing method for milk

Additive manufacturing has infiltrated almost all industries, including food! In fact, 3D printed food was first studied by NASA in 2006: the space organization was researching how to feed astronauts during longer space missions. Fourteen years later, researchers are still interested in using 3D printing technologies to create nutritious dishes from different types of foods. This is the case of researchers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), who developed a 3D printing method to print milk structures at room temperature. The scientists used a Direct Ink Writing (DIW) 3D printing technique with a simple milk ink formulation.

Direct Ink Writing is an extrusion-based additive manufacturing method that is mostly used for meso and micro scale structures. In DIW, the liquid-phase ink is dispensed out of small nozzles under controlled floor rates and deposited along digitally defined paths to fabricate 3D structures layer by layer. The scientists develop an ink milk from a single ingredient: milk.

Given the versatility of the demonstrated method, the team from SUTD envisions that cold extrusion of food inks will be applied in creating nutritious and visually appealing food, with potential applications in formulating foods with various needs for nutrition and materials properties, where food inks could be extruded at room temperature without compromising the nutrients that would be degraded at elevated temperatures.