State of the Art of Sustainability in 3D Food Printing

Abstract

3D Printing or Additive Manufacturing (AM) has become an emerging trend in global production area with a wide range of application fields. The increasing number of the concepts indicates the opportunity to address the needs and challenges of AM in both food industry and global scale. The technological, resource and industrial aspects of 3D Food Printing have the potentialities to enable to ‘print’ highly customized food, not just about the shape, but also about the structure, texture, flavor, taste, nutritional value, new edible alternatives and specific formulations for different choices, where the individual meals become possible. Anyway, the increasing importance of global concerns push towards the consideration if the value of the printed meal and 3D Printing itself can be sustainable and how. Whereas several studies claim to address the sustainability of 3Dfood printing, it is not clear yet what is the state of the art of 3D Food Printing within the sustainability intersection of economic, environmental and social pillars. Starting from the presentation of the available current approaches and practices, the paper provides a holistic outlook of the topic, shows the parameters that impact the sustainability of the technology and propose the improvements to be applied for completing the sustainability view and to achieve the 3D food printing full potential.