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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

3D Food Printing

Researchers Upcycle McDonald’s Waste Oil into 3D Printing Resin

We know that french fries aren’t good for you, but perhaps some good may come from our addiction to them. Researchers at the University of Toronto Scarborough recently showed that they could turn waste oil from McDonald’s deep fryers into a high-resolution, biodegradable 3D printing resin (h/t Plastics News).

Professor Andre Simpson led the research after realizing that the molecules in commercial resins were similar to the fats in cooking Oils. Last month, the University of Toronto Scarborough explained the research, writing:

Simpson and his team used a straightforward one-step chemical process in the lab, using about one litre of used cooking oil to make 420ml of resin. The resin was able to print a plastic butterfly that showed features down to 100 micrometres, and was structurally and thermally stable, meaning it wouldn’t crumble or melt above room temperature.

While the research is still early, Simpson points out how this technology could help on a couple of different environmentally friendly fronts. It helps find a use for waste oil, which can cause sewage backups and be expensive for restaurants to dispose of. Current 3D printing plastic resin uses fossil fuel oils and is difficult to make. Because the McResin is made from recyclable materials, it could be much cheaper than the current plastic version.

This McResin is also easily biodegradable because it’s basically just fats. Though Simpson doesn’t point to this specifically, perhaps this resin could create single-use cutlery or takeout packaging. There are obviously thermal issues to be worked out, but we are just at the beginning of this particular slice of 3D printing McResearch, and it will undoubtedly improve as more resources are poured into it.

Simpsons research joins a host of other startups tackling our plastic waste problem. Startups are developing ways to break our addiction to traditional plastic by developing edible cutlery, banana leaf packaging, or creating new types of compostable plastic-like packaging.

What’s cool about this resin is how it uses our addiction to greasy food to potentially help combat our addiction to single-use plastic. So maybe you can feel a little less guilty about ordering that side of fries next time.

NovaMeat Unveils Version 2.0 of its 3D-Printed Meatless Steak

NovaMeat, the Spanish startup which creates realistic meat alternatives through 3D printing plant proteins, has developed a new version of its faux steak. CEO Giuseppe Scionti told me that its new product, which he called Steak 2.0, is “the first to mimic simultaneously the texture and the appearance of an animal whole muscle cut, in this case a beef steak.” The steak cost €1.35 ($1.50) per 50 grams to produce.

Scionti claims this is the most realistic plant-based steak that has yet been developed. Steak and other whole muscle cuts — like chicken breast or pork chops — have a tricky texture that’s much more difficult to make from plants than, say, ground meat. And unlike burgers, there are very few plant-based steak options out there right now, outside of a few smaller brands mainly selling in Europe.

Down the road, however, that will likely change. Redefine Meat is also using 3D printing to make realistic meat alternatives, Atlast Food is developing a mycelium (mushroom root) based scaffold for whole cuts of plant-based meat, and Emergy Foods is creating plant-based steak that looks eerily similar to the real thing — but neither of them have brought a product to market yet. On the cell-based front, Aleph Farms has already successfully grown cultured steak the width and thickness of a credit card (though that’s also a ways from being available).

NovaMeat’s Steak 2.0 has yet to be put to a public taste test, so it’s hard to substantiate Scionti’s claims regarding its superior taste and texture. It’ll be a while yet before we’re able to taste it ourselves. The startup will license its micro-extrusion technology to plant-based meat manufacturers in two to three years. However, Scionti told me that he hopes to start selling his steaks at a small scale to restaurants in Europe by the end of 2020.

By that time, there will likely be a lot more players making plant-based whole muscle cuts that actually look and taste like the real thing. Most notable is Impossible Foods, maker of the plant-based “bleeding” burger. The startup is set to unveil a brand new product at CES 2020 tomorrow, and last year Impossible’s CEO Pat Brown told The Spoon that their next product would likely be steak. Check back tomorrow to see if NovaMeat’s Steak 2.0 is about to get some serious competition!

Mycusini, the First Consumer-Priced 3D Chocolate Printer, Begins Shipping in Europe

While the future of 3D food printing will include everything from printed bread to plant-based steaks, the reality is printing globs of goo for your meal might not be an appetizing thought for most consumers.

But what if it were chocolate?

If you live in my home, where pretty much everyone is a certified chocoholic, there’s a good chance you’d find some takers. Luckily for us, a consumer-priced 3D chocolate printer went from idea to reality recently when the mycusini home 3D chocolate printer started shipping in Europe.

Priced at €298 (~$320), the mycusini is the only chocolate printer on the market today shipping below the $2,000 price point. The product debuted on Kickstarter in June and went on to raise €20,000 (~$22,185 USD). Originally, mycusini was scheduled to ship by the holidays, but the product is weeks ahead of schedule and, according company spokesperson Gerd Funk, regular orders for the Kickstarter were all fulfilled at the end of last month.

Part of the reason Print2Taste, the company behind the mycusini, has been able to get the price so low is that they first developed a professional 3D chocolate printer, the Procusini, in 2015. Since that time, the company has continued to iterate and improve on the Procusini (currently in its fourth generation), including the development of the “choco” ingredient capsules that are similar to the ones used in the mycusini.

As I wrote this past June:

“So how does the mycusini work? Basically like all 3D food printers: by extruding small amounts of material (chocolate in this case) layer by layer. The major downside to the mycusini is it, at least initially, requires the use of custom-made “Choco refills” as the printing material, which are essentially crayon-shaped chocolate cylinders that fit into a stainless steel dispensing cartridge. A single-source supplier is never ideal, and being reliant on a small startup out of Germany for chocolate refills likely means potentially long wait times before you can start printing your next confection.”

While I still would prefer not to rely on a proprietary refill system, I think it would be worth the investment for those who are attracted to the idea of creating elaborate chocolate designs. Because of its low price, I could see the mycusini as a low-risk way for some chefs or chocolatiers to dip their toe into the 3D food printing waters.

So what would you print with the mycusini? The software allows you to freehand draw designs or pick from a pre-designed template, of which there are over 200 designs created by Print2Taste’s in-house chef. According to the company, in the future mycusini users will be able to upload their own designs created through CAD software and shared on an online marketplace.

Like I said, I could see some takers in my home for a product like the mycusini, but because the product is only shipping in Europe, I’ll have to wait before I put it on my holiday wish list.

For those of you living in Europe, the mycusini might make a good last-minute holiday gift for the chocolate nut or aspiring chocolatier in your life, especially since the product looks be on sale through the holidays at €250.

It’s Personal: Nourished 3D Prints Vitamins Tailored Exactly to Your Needs

If you’re like me, when shopping for vitamins you might pick up whatever’s on sale. After all, vitamins are mostly one-size-fits-all, right?

British startup Nourished would very much disagree. The Birmingham, U.K.-based company is trying to shake up the supplement space by using 3D printing technology to create personalized vitamins made specifically for you.

First you answer a short questionnaire on the Nourished website describing your lifestyle, health issues and nutrition goals. Nourished’s algorithm then builds you a unique “stack” out of their 28 “nourishments.” (You can also build your own stack if you already know what ingredients you want.) The company then 3D prints bespoke, layered vitamins just for you out of vegan gel — which end up looking like rainbow gummy candy — and deliver to your door every month.

Why 3D print the vitamins? According to Nourished’s Head of Brand, Caitlin Stanley, manufacturing supplements via 3D printing opens up a whole new world of personalization possibilities. Typically, active ingredients that show up in vitamins — like ashwagandha and Vitamin A — interfere with each other when combined into the same capsule. However, by printing these ingredients on top of each other, Nourished can fuse them into the same bite-sized supplement.

Each Nourished box comes with 28 stacks meant to be taken once a day. The vitamins are individually packaged “to maintain efficacy,” according to Stanley, who added that the packaging is compostable.

Photo: Nourished

If there’s one thing that might put people off of Nourished, it’s the price. The service costs £39.99 (~ $51.00) a month, which is significantly more than your average vitamin bottle off the pharmacy shelf. However, the cost is on par with other personalized D2C vitamin services, like Care/Of.

When I asked about competitors, Stanley was adamant that Nourished is the only company out there right now creating a truly personalized supplement. Care/Of basically just aggregates a variety of pills into a single pouch, while Nourished actually combines all of the ingredients into a bespoke bite-size supplement made specifically for the individual.

Nourished just launched a little over six weeks ago, so it’s in the very early stages. Right now it’s only shipping in the U.K. However, Stanley told me that the company plans to head to the U.S. in 2020. The company has raised a seed round for an undisclosed amount and currently has a team of twenty-five.

Personalization is a hot trend in the food space right now. Consumers want all aspects of their diet tailored to their exact preferences, from recipes to drive-thru orders to the foam topping your craft cocktail. But when it comes to health and nutrition, customization should be “first and foremost,” said Stanley. We’ll see if Nourished’s 3D printing strategy can help them be first and foremost in the personalized vitamin space, too.

If you’re interested in what’s coming next in personalized nutrition, you’ve got to be at Customize. The one-day event in New York City will explore the world of food personalization throughout the meal journey. Grab your Early Bird ticket before they’re all sold out!

Aleph Farms Says it Has Grown Meat Cells in Space

Israeli lab-grown food company Aleph Farms on Monday claimed a world’s, or rather, a galaxy’s first, announcing that it has successfully grown small-scale muscle tissue on the International Space Station, which the company points out is “248 miles away from any natural resources.”

Aleph Farms says it uses the natural process of muscle-tissue regeneration in a lab setting to grow its steaks. The Sept. 26 experiment was conducted in the Russian segment of the ISS, using a 3D bioprinter developed by Russia’s 3D Bioprinting Solutions. The U.S.’s Meal Source Technologies and Finless Foods also collaborated on the experiment.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka conducting the experiment on the ISS. (Courtesy Aleph Farms)

Not only does the experiment prove that astronauts may one day grow their own steaks, the company says, but it shows that Aleph’s technology could be used anywhere on Earth, despite access to water and other resources. Growing cows for slaughter is one of the most resource-heavy food production processes for the planet, which is why many startups are seeking to replace beef, whether through cultivated or plant-based meat.

“In space, we don’t have 10,000 or 15,000 liters of water available to produce one kilogram of beef,” Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, said in the press release. “This joint experiment marks a significant first step toward achieving our vision to ensure food security for generations to come, while preserving our natural resources.”

While Aleph had Earth’s climate crisis in mind when conducting this experiment, 30 Japanese companies launched a consortium this year to figure out how to feed people in space. But hopefully, all of the solutions currently in the works will mean we won’t have to flee to another planet for survival.

Anrich3D Wants to 3D Print Food Personalized Just For You

The concept of 3D printing food is already pretty futuristic. Add in nutrition personalization, and you get something that sounds even more like it’s straight out of Star Trek.

That’s exactly the device that Anrich3D, one of the finalists in our SKS 2019 Startup Showcase, is trying to make. The soon-to-be-incorporated company is developing a system of 3D printers which can precisely dispense food based off of an individual’s particular nutritional and aesthetic preferences. Pretty radical, huh?

We spoke with Anrich3D founder and CEO Anirudh Agarwal about why he thinks 3D printing could make food more nutritious, affordable, and accessible. Check out the Q&A then get your tickets to SKS to see Anirudh pitch live in Seattle this October!

Give us your 15-second elevator pitch.
We produce personalized meal plans for health enthusiasts based on information from health trackers, apps, wearables and medical check-ups. Each meal is personalized to the individual using multi-material food 3D printing at scale.

What inspired you to start your company?
Most people don’t know what to eat. There are many apps and services out there to give you very personalized advice. But there are no services to convert those apps into meals. Moreover, humans are good at and enjoy creativity, while number crunching is a machine’s forte. I may want to decide what physical form of food I am in the mood for or even what cuisine, but I don’t want to measure every ingredient according to my nutritional requirements.

A food 3D printer can provide personalized nutrition integrating data from all the apps, wearables and even medical records that exist to create the mathematically optimized meal for me — inarguably, the best possible thing I could be eating. It is said, “It’s 80% nutrition and 20% exercise.” With this, I never have to worry about my 80%!

What’s more, it can produce little bite-sized pieces I call “foodlets” so as to make every bite perfect and an absolutely effortless experience. The peak of convenience beyond what any fast food restaurant can provide. And when machines make it, with scale, it can be available and affordable for all.

With “fast-food” made healthy, we can liberate people to always have a healthy option no matter how busy or broke. There is a saying in Hindi, “Jaan hai to Jahan hai”: if you have your health, you have the world! Health is the foundation of our productivity. With optimal nutrition and therefore good health within grasp, people can reach their full potential and propel humanity forward. And of course lower instances of diabetes, obesity and other lifestyle diseases. A lower strain on the healthcare system. Preventive healthcare!

It doesn’t end there. With enough scale, we can transform the supply chain for food by applying manufacturing inventory management techniques. We can work with grocery stores to minimize inventory and even utilize the fresh produce left at the end of each day to minimize food waste. With more efficient distribution, we may be able to reduce world hunger if not eliminate it completely!

I could go on about specific ground-level applications, but this is the overarching vision. This drives me and gives me a reason to wake up in the morning!

What’s the most challenging part of getting a food tech startup off the ground?
Where do I begin! Food is a touchy subject. Literally — we need to be careful about what is literally touching the food! We need regulatory approval (FDA for the U.S.) for the parts, the machine and the process of preparing the food. We also need food handling certification for all personnel that handle the food.

Food is also “touchy” figuratively. People have deep emotional connections to their food. A new form of food may have a psychological barrier to cross for acceptance. We need to focus on demonstrations and education and make this “new” thing mundane and “normal” with exposure for the majority to adopt it. The good thing is, instead of giving supplements powders, we want to focus on real food ingredients and just give the precise proportions of those!

How will your company change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
Food 3D printing at scale has the potential to make “fast” food healthy. In other words, make healthy food convenient and affordable!

No two people are the same. Everyone has different needs and goals. Food 3D printing at scale has the potential to make individual-level personalization available and affordable for all. Beyond personalized nutrition, people crave a personal touch. For some people, a sandwich is most convenient, while it may be a wrap or hot pocket for others. Some want a dish displayed traditionally, while others may like their toast carved as a dinosaur. With 3D printing, this personal touch can also be added.

Armed with personalized nutrition and this personal touch, Anrich3D can change the perception of food and what form it can take! Star Trek anyone?

For kids, healthier food can be delivered in the shapes of their favorite characters to improve their motivation to finish the meal. This can be made into a gamified nutritional educational program for kids where they unlock more characters by finishing each meal. As the levels progress, they need to identify ingredients and make estimates for the amounts of each ingredient in a balanced meal. The program gradually helps them acquire the taste for healthier foods and teaches them about healthy ingredients and nutrition along the way!

This can be a government-mandated nutrition course in every school all over the world to raise a generation of healthier kids with an acquired taste for healthier food and a deep understanding of nutrition to create a healthier and more productive tomorrow!

Even beyond all that, Anrich3D can streamline the food supply chain from farm to grocery store to your plate so as to minimize waste and redistribute existing produce to minimize hunger. Mobilizing forces across countries, we can end world hunger!

Come watch Anirudh pitch live and at the SKS Startup Showcase next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.

Future Food: Impossible’s Retail Launch, Is 3D Printing the Future of Plant-Based Meat?

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

Ladies and gentlemen, mark your calendars. At the time of writing, Impossible Foods is heading into retail in 7 days, 23 hours, 43 minutes and 16 seconds. 15 seconds. 14 seconds.

Obviously we’re excited. We’ve been big fans of Impossible’s “bleeding” burgers for a while now and have been anticipating the retail launch ever since the company first teased the news back in November of last year.

Now, thanks to a tweet from Impossible Foods earlier this week, we know a little more about what to expect.

  1. We know their first product will be a 12-ounce ground beef-like product, similar to Beyond Beef.
  2. We know it will debut in a city that “smells like palm trees.”

My first question is, what do palm trees smell like?? My second question is, is the tweet referring to Miami or LA? My money is on LA because of its trend-setting cred and abundance of celebrities, but my colleague Chris Albrecht is placing his bet on Miami because of its reputation as a center for testing out retail innovation.

Really though, it doesn’t matter where Impossible first launches in retail. Unless there’s some sort of catastrophe it’ll eventually roll out in grocery stores around the country. What’s more interesting is what product Impossible has chosen to launch with: a 12-ounce package of ground plant-based meat.

Honestly, I think this move makes a lot of sense. By launching with fresh ground “meat,” Impossible has to jostle with far fewer competitors to stand out in the refrigerated grocery aisle, which is becoming crowded with plant-based burgers. As of now its only really going up against Beyond Beef (which, admittedly, is pretty delicious) and Hormel, who just debuted a vegan ground meat product last week.

Starting with a ground product is also an opportunity for Impossible to show off its versatility. Thus far, the vast majority of Impossible’s restaurant partners have served the alterna-meat in burger form (the notable exceptions being Qdoba and Little Ceasars). This first product is Impossible’s way of saying “Don’t pigeonhole us!”

The flip side of that strategy is that as of now, the vast majority of consumers associate Impossible with burgers. They might not think to look for a ground Impossible product in retail, or they might not want to do the work of forming the patties themselves.

Then again, I doubt they’ll have to wait too long before Impossible follows up with a pre-formed burger product. Though it’ll certainly be longer than 7 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes and 49 seconds.

Photo: Novameat

3D printing money

When I first heard about startups 3D printing plant-based meat, I thought it was a cool, futuristic-sounding technology that would likely never be affordable or practical enough to actually scale up.

It seems I might have been a little too hasty. In the past week two companies which 3D print meat alternatives have snagged funding: first Novameat announced an undisclosed amount of funding at the Good Food Conference last week, then Redefine Meat followed up yesterday when news broke that it had raised a $6 million seed round.

The two startups have a similar go-to-market strategy. Both companies are planning to sell/rent their machine and corresponding plant protein pods to third parties — Novameat to high-end restaurants and Redefine Meat to large meat companies looking to diversify their offerings. And they’re both based in Europe! Novameat in Spain and Redefine Meat in Israel.

Clearly there’s something to this whole 3D printing plant-based meat thing — or at least investors think so.

(photo: Chris Albrecht).

Much ado about processed food

This week WIRED writer Matt Simon published a fascinating dive into why people are making such a fuss about the processing it takes to make plant-based meats.

In the piece he notes that yes, buzzed-about plant-based products like Impossible and Beyond are highly processed. But so are a lot of other staple things we eat, like yogurt, beer and bread.

I think you can also flip the processing question on its head. Plant-based meats are alternatives to meat sourced from animals. And isn’t animal meat one of the most processed foods of all? Animals themselves process plants into muscle, then are butchered to become hamburgers, steaks, or what have you. Comparatively, growing some heme through genetically engineered yeast or pushing pea protein through an extruder to mimic the texture of chicken seems relatively low-key.

In short, processing does not always equal bad. Especially when the choice is between a plant-based burger and industrially farmed meat.

Photo: JUST

Protein ’round the web

That’s it from me! I’ll be off next week exploring the Alaskan wilderness so one of my lovely Spoon colleagues will be taking the Future Food reigns in my stead.

Eat well,
Catherine

Redefine Meat Raises $6M for 3D Printed Meat Alternatives

Redefine Meat, the Israeli company developing technology to 3D print plant-based meat, today announced that it had raised a $6 million seed round led by CPT Capital with participation by Hanaco Ventures, angel investors and German poultry company The PHW Group.

The startup will use its new capital to finalize its alternative meat 3D printer and ensure that it hits its timeline release goal of 2020, when it plans to begin selling its 3D printer and corresponding ingredient packs to a handful of meat processing partners and restaurants.

I covered Redefine Meat earlier this year when the startup did the first public tasting of its 3D meat to a restaurant full of unsuspecting diners. From that piece:

Redefine Meat’s “meat” is made with relatively simple ingredients: three plant protein sources, fat, and water. The secret is in the printing production method. Instead of extrusion or pressing, Redefine Meat uses 3D printing to give their products a more realistic texture and mouthfeel. “We can not only mimic the fibers of the meat, but also the way that fat and water is trapped in the meat matrix,” explained [CEO] Ben-Shitrit.

When I spoke to them then the company planned to sell its meat to restaurants and eventually develop their own retail brand. However, since then they’ve changed their go-to-market strategy quite a bit. Speaking with Ben-Shitrit earlier today he told me that now they plan to sell their 3D printing machine and shelf-stable plant protein ingredient packs to meat companies, who can then print their own products to distribute to retail and restaurants. Ben-Shitrit said that their machines currently cost about $100,000 each and only work with his company’s suite of protein packs, which will be a recurring cost for partner companies.

For now Redefine Meat is only focused on beef, though they plan to expand their repertoire to include tuna, pork and more. They will install a handful of machines with their manufacturing partners in 2020 and are planning to do a full launch in 2021.

Something must be in the air since last week another company which 3D prints plant-based meat, Novameat, also raised a chunk of funding. This flurry of investment goes to show that 3D printing might just be the key to making meat alternatives — especially larger cuts like steak — that more accurately replicate the appearance and texture of the real thing. Or at least that investors are willing to bet on it.

Novameat Gains New Funds to Take Its 3D Printed Plant-based Steak to Market

At the Good Food Conference in San Francisco last week, Novameat, a Spanish startup developing meat alternatives through 3D printing, announced it had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from New Crop Capital.

Novameat uses patented 3D-printing technology to “print” plant-based meat with the same fibrous texture of the real thing. According to founder Giuseppe Scionti, whom I talked to, the company’s special 3D printer uses syringes filled with plant protein to extrude cuts of meat that mimic the muscles of animal tissue. He said the company will use the new funding to do more demonstrations of his 3D printed steak, scale up the technology, grow his team of four, and expand beyond Europe.

Extrusion is how most plant-based meat companies make vegan protein look like real chicken nuggets, tuna chunks, etc. But Scionti told me that his machine is unique since it can make whole cuts of muscle, such as a steak or chicken breast. He also said that they could better imitate meat texture since 3D printing allows for micro extrusion on a large scale. “If you want to get material like beefsteak you want to control both micro texture and macro texture,” he told me. So instead of extruding out a piece of protein that is meant to be a whole chicken nugget, he can print out individual lines that look and chew like the network of muscle fibers that make up a large cut of meat.

Novameat’s technology also opens up possibilities for novel ingredients. Scionti doesn’t want to use wheat or soy in his printed meats for environmental reasons, and also because he said their texture isn’t quite as meat-like. His 3D printer apparently adapts to a wider range of plant proteins, such as pea (a favorite of Beyond Meat), which can be combined to take on the unique texture of almost any cut of meat.

NOVAMEAT - by EIT-Food

Instead of creating his own line of branded products, Novemeat will employ a meaty SaaS model by licensing out the technology to plant-based meat manufacturers. In addition to the 3D printer itself, his team will also work with individual partners to develop the optimal “recipe” of proteins to create their ideal meat substitute.

Scionti even told me he’s envisioning partnerships with high-end restaurants. He would rent them the machine, likely for a low cost, and provide them Nespresso-like capsules they could use to print their own custom cuts of “meat.”

Novameat hopes to bring its technology to restaurants and retail (through partners) within 5 years or so. As of now its 3D printed steaks still haven’t been put to a public taste test, so it’s too early to say if their technology will truly, as Scionti is hoping, usher in a new wave of more realistic whole cuts of meat. But if successful, it could open the door to an entirely new segment of plant-based meat products, such as whole T-bone steaks or pork chops.

However, Novameat could have some competition. In Israel, Redefine Meat is also using 3D printing to make vegan cuts of meat, including beef. They’re not using 3D printing, but Impossible Foods is also tackling plant-based steak. And new scaffolding technologies, such as the mushroom root-based ones from Atlast Food, are hoping to make it easier for meat alternative companies to make complicated cuts of meat like chicken breast and bacon.

Of course, with the soaring popularity of alternative meat right now, it likely won’t be a zero-sum game for whole plant-based cuts of meat — especially if Novameat’s 3D printing technology is really as innovative as Scionti claims.

But all bets could be off when cell-based meat, which re-creates animal tissue in the lab, comes to market. For example, Israeli startup Aleph Farms is developing cultured steak meant to taste and chew exactly like the real thing because it’s made of actual animal cells.

Then again, cultured meat is a ways from hitting the market, and even further away from creating whole, thick cuts of meat (right now Aleph Farms’ steak is only the thickness and size of a credit card). Which means that plant-based options like Novameat have a while to put their stake (er, steak) in the meat alternative space before competition becomes too fierce.

Meet mycusini, a Chocolate 3D Printer for Under €200

Sure, 3D printing chocolate in your kitchen may not be practical, but it’s certainly cool, right?

At least that’s what I’ll try to convince my wife if and when the mycusini, a new chocolate 3D printer for the home, ever makes its way stateside. The mycusini, which is currently on sale as part of a new Kickstarter campaign from German startup called Print2Taste for €198 (about $225), is expected to start shipping to backers by the end of year.

Like many, I’m a bit skeptical when it comes to crowdfunded hardware projects nowadays, but the folks behind the mcusini have already proven they can deliver. Print2Taste got its start with the Bocusini, a food 3D printer that launched on Kickstarter back in 2015 and shipped to backers pretty much on time. Since that time, what was essentially a group of food researchers from the University of Weihenstephan-Triesdorf has established themselves as a legit 3D food printing startup, taking their original Bocusini and making a professional edition called the Procusini.

All that experience finally led them to think about creating a true home 3D printer.

“With our many years of experience in the professional field of 3D food printing, we want to make the benefits of this amazing technology available to everybody,” said Print2Taste’s Eva Schlosser. “With mycusini, consumers will get access to the creative world of 3D Choco printing at a very attractive price.”

So how does the mycusini work? Basically like all 3D food printers: by extruding small amounts of material (chocolate in this case) layer by layer.  The major downside to the mycusini is it, at least initially, requires the use of custom-made “Choco refills” as the printing material, which are essentially crayon-shaped chocolate cylinders that fit into a stainless steel dispensing cartridge. A single-source supplier is never ideal, and being reliant on a small startup out of Germany for chocolate refills likely means potentially long wait times before you can start printing your next confection.

In case you’re wondering why you can’t just use your own chocolate, it’s because the “Choco” is designed specifically by the company for printing and, according to the company, isn’t technically chocolate. From the Kickstarter:

“mycusini® 3D Choco is a chocolate grease glaze. This means that instead of cocoa butter, other vegetable fats, such as coconut fat, are used so that curing takes place more quickly and thus higher objects can be produced. 

This recipe seemed to make more sense for practical use compared to a chocolate that first had to be tempered in a tempering device and then does not cure quickly enough when working with the mycusini.”

The company indicated they are working on a true chocolate refill (presumably using cocoa butter), but they have not given a specific timeline.

You can see mycusini in action below:

mycusini - easy creative PIRI - Schokoladendrucker - 3D food printer - 3D Drucker Schokolade

The company promises to start shipping the mycusini to backers before Christmas, but if you’re like me and live in the States, you’ll have to wait. That’s because the mycusini is initially only available in Europe, New Zealand and Australia. No word yet on if and when the it will ship stateside, but I’ve reached out to Print2Taste and will update this when I learn more.

3D Food Printing Startup BeeHex Debuts a Cake Decorating Robot

BeeHex, a company that got its start as a NASA project to create a 3D pizza printer, has gone from pizza to pastries with its latest product, a dessert decorating robot.

The new product, a high-volume machine that “prints” frosting from up to six 62 oz cartridges, uses an object scanning system to calculate the height and shape of items it will decorate. From there, the robot extrudes frosting to decorate the pastry with up to six colors. Depending on the complexity of the design, the robot can finish 15-21 cakes (1/4 sheet) per hour or 120-500 cookies. According to the company, this translates to an increase in productivity up to 66% over traditional (read human) cake and cookie decorators.

The base price for the 3D Decorator is $65 thousand and can be leased for $1,600 per month. While that might seem a bit spendy for a frosting-dispensing robot, it could easily make economic sense for a business with a whole lotta cakes to decorate that is paying a human to do all the work.

And of course, the best proof of whether a customer will pay a certain price is, well, customers, and BeeHex already has those. BeeHex CEO Anjan Contractor told me via email that the product is already shipping and they already have customers in markets ranging from “retail grocers to commissary bakeries.”

BeeHex’s transition from pizza to pastries should not be too surprising since pizza printing, while a neat proof of concept that allowed the company to develop their food printing technology, was never really all that commercially practical. The reality is pizza-making is something that can be done more quickly with human hands since throwing sauce and toppings onto a pie isn’t something that requires the precision of, say, decorating a cake.

That said, the company did raise a $1 million seed round from a pizza chain founder by the name of Jim Grote in 2017. Would the founder of Donatos Pizza be happy with the transition to cookies and cakes? My guess is yes, since at the time of the funding the pizza mogul was already talking up possible applications for BeeHex’s technology beyond pizza:

“After pizza, this technology could be used for a wide range of foods,” Grote told Techcrunch at the time. “The company has mastered the technology around dough, which is a real challenge. So it would make sense to expand into other baked goods, potentially.”

And possibly even personalized nutrition. While the company’s latest product is all about pastry decorating, according to Contractor, the food printing startup is already working on a new project with the US military.

“We also have an active project with the US Army to produce personalized nutrition bars for soldiers using the same hardware platform,” said Contractor.

If you want to see the BeeHex 3D Decorator in action, you can see it next month at the IDDBA (International Dairy Deli Bakery Association) Show in Orlando. Or, alternatively, you can just check out the video of the frosting printing robot below:

BeeHex Automated 3D Decorator

Redefine Meat Serves 3D Printed “Beef” made of Plants to Unknowing Diners

This week, diners at a fancy restaurant in Israel were served an elegantly plated kebab, garnished with an eye-catching swipe of crimson sauce and thin slices of red onion.

What they didn’t know is that the kebab wasn’t actually made of meat. Instead, it was a 3D-printed plant-based creation from Israeli food tech company Redefine Meat (formerly Jet-Eat).

“We are hijacking the dinner,” explained Redefine Meat CEO and founder Eschchar Ben-Shitrit. According to him, this marked the first time in the world that 3D printed plant-based meat was served in a restaurant.

Redefine Meat’s “meat” is made with relatively simple ingredients: three plant protein sources, fat, and water. The secret is in the printing production method. Instead of extrusion or pressing, Redefine Meat uses 3D printing to give their products a more realistic texture and mouthfeel. “We can not only mimic the fibers of the meat, but also the way that fat and water is trapped in the meat matrix,” explained Ben-Shitrit.

Serving the meat at a restaurant — with no preface or explanation — was the ultimate test for Redefine Meat. If diners liked it in and of itself, and not just because it’s plant-based, then it was a win. “We don’t want to [make] a better vegan product,” Ben-Shitrit explained. “We want to attract people who are eating meat.”

They’re not alone. Lots of companies are developing plant-based products targeted not at vegetarians and vegans, but at the growing number of flexitarians. That includes young startups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods as well as veteran meat alternative companies like Tofurky and Lightlife. Even major food corporations and leaders in packaged meat goods like Nestlé and Tyson Foods are pivoting to develop products aimed at people who eat meat, but are looking to eat less of it.

Redefine Meat plans to launch their first product, likely some sort of 3D printed vegan “beef,” through a French butcher that distributes meat wholesale to European restaurants. They plan to have their product on menus in Europe by 2020.

Down the road, they also plan to sell their meat directly to the consumer. Ben-Shitrit told me that he expected that their meat would retail for around €30 to€35 per kilo (just under $20 per pound). That’s pretty eye-poppingly expensive, at least for the U.S. consumer. However, Ben-Shitrit expects that price to go down as they scale up the technology and get more, higher-producing machines. As of now, the company only has one small machine that makes around two pounds of meat per hour. They’re in the midst of building a bigger “alpha” machine that will make roughly ten times that. While he didn’t disclose details, Ben-Shitrit said that the company has an undisclosed amount of funding from Israeli investors.

We haven’t had the chance to try Redefine Meat’s 3D printed meat ourselves. According to Ben-Shitrit, the aforementioned diners liked the product. When they were told it was actually made of plants, “85 percent of them ranked it as meat-like.” Obviously we have to take this review with a grain of salt, but texture is kind of the final frontier of meat alternatives. Companies have figured out ways to emulate the protein, umami and even bloodiness of meat — but beyond burgers, there’s a lot of work still to be done.

Sure, a few companies are making strides in the meat-free texture department: Vivera sells plant-based steaks; Sophie’s Kitchen and Good Catch make fishless tuna, and several players are making vegan sushi. But there’s still a long way to go. If successful, Redefine Meat’s technology could help develop plant-based meats and fish with a mouthfeel closer to the real thing.

At the end of the day, there won’t be any wide-reaching dietary shifts towards plant-based eating unless those plant-based options taste really good. Which is a fact that Ben-Shitrit is very aware of. “If we have amazing technology and it’s not tasty, then we didn’t do anything,” he told me.

Hopefully Redefine Meat brings their 3D printed “meat” stateside soon so we can see (and taste) for ourselves.