3D printing of foods with added functionality – Examples of cheese-like products and probiotic cookies

Description

Extrusion-based 3D printing offers more flexibility in achieving food structures with controlled composition, geometric complexity and added functionality compared to conventional manufacturing methods. Research in our laboratory of Food Process Engineering aims at generation of knowledge required to stimulate the development of this technology and explores 3D-food printed concepts with added functionality.
In a first project we investigated 3D printing of sodium caseinate dispersions, exhibiting reversible gelation behaviour 1. These formulations can be considered as a model system for cheese products. Gelation and dispensing behaviour of sodium caseinate formulations were investigated by rheological analysis. Subsequently, 3D printing of sodium caseinate dispersions was evaluated by printing products with multiple layers at varying protein concentrations. An enzymatic cross-linking procedure was established to enable printing of caseinate dispersions at lower protein content.
In a second project we investigated printing of cookies with probiotic bacteria and assessed their survival during baking as influenced by the geometric design of the structure and the baking conditions. Firstly, a cookie dough formulation was developed to allow printing of more detailed cookie designs. Secondly, designs were printed to make highly-porous and filled baked food structures. Results showed that survival of probiotics in a ‘honeycomb’ structure was 1-log higher than that in a ‘concentric’ structure, when a similar degree of starch gelatinization was reached. This result is consistent with our hypothesis that bacteria survive better in a structure with higher surface/volume ratio, because the time needed for the baking of such a porous structure can be shortened.
Other research on 3D food printing that will be briefly discussed is development of printed fruit juice products by addition of polysaccharides and development of printed pea cookies from dry-enriched pea ingredients.

Period	2018
Event title	32nd EFFoST Conference
Event type	Conference
Location	Nantes, France