Suzanne's Mom's Blog

I saw an article in the paper today about 3-D machines making protein snacks for soldiers. The results looked like not very appealing beef jerky.

Other 3-D food creations in the works run the gamut from unappealing to gorgeous.

Jane Dornbusch wrote in a September Globe article, “The most popular application in 3-D food printing seems to be in the decidedly low-tech area of cake decoration.

“Well, not just cake decoration, but sugary creations of all kinds. The Sugar Lab is the confectionary arm of 3-D printing pioneer 3D Systems, and it expects to have the ChefJet, a 3-D food printer, available commercially later this year.”

3-D printing, says ChefJet co-inventor Liz von Hasseln, “is additive manufacturing. Instead of carving away at something, with 3-D printing you build something up layer by layer. That’s the hallmark. You build it exactly as it exists in a file.” More here.

As lovely as the sugar sculptures in the Globe story appear, the beef jerky, veggie burgers, and chicken nuggets are kind of scary. But let’s put it in context: could they be any more strange than certain staples of your childhood? 3-D burgers are probably no worse than, say, canned fruit cocktail. Here is poet Amy Gerstier on that old-time delicacy:

what was fruit cocktail’s secret
meaning? It glistened as though varnished.
Faint of taste and watery, it contained anemic
grapes, wrinkled and pale. Also deflated
maraschino cherries. Fan-shaped pineapple
chunks, and squares of bleached peach
and pear completed the scene. Fruit cocktail’s
colorlessness, its lack of connection to anything
living, (like tree, seed or leaf) seemed
cautionary, sad.

Photo: 3-D Systems
3-D printed sugar design by The Sugar Lab.