Will we print food in our #FutureKitchens? | ABC Adelaide
Bench-tops that turn into convection cooking tops. Weight scales that measure and guide you through the ingredient inclusions. Fridges that talk to your pantry and then let you know what you have and need and order what you don’t and 3D printers that print food ready for you to eat, were all part of a #FutureKitchens chat I had with Sonya Feldhoff of ABC Adelaide.
Most listeners emails and SMS’s erred on the side of a step to far and not in my kitchen, but these are the same people who said they would never own or use a microwave.
Printing of food in our kitchens for most of us, is about 5 – 10 years, but chocolates, cakes and sweets are already being printed with pizza not far behind and coming to a NASA space station near us, this year.
There seems to be a panic driven push-back but many things are and will conspire to make the kitchen of the future and even 3D printed foods seem ordinary.
Firstly we love our kitchen gadgets and devices and they invariably always sell well.
Secondly the Internet of Things which will connect all our inanimate objects are on the cusp of becoming ordinary, with Samsung announcing only last month that every device they sell by 2020 will be capable of connectivity.
Thirdly, the reality that many of our future homes will be built smaller and it will be imperative that every inch will be capable of multitasking and multipurpose.
And lastly, that we will have to feed 2 billion more people by 2050.
Our answer to this kitchen and food evolution is, as always, not to denounce and pillory the uncomfortable and uncertain, but rather to become informed and make considered decisions.
Gadgets and devices are one element of this, printing of food is another.
The debate must be had and because we can is not the reason that something like 3D printed foods must be.
For the sick, those not able or willing to cook, for developing nations, nations with little or no farmable land and those that may not have ready access to food supplies, perhaps 3D food printing is a reasonable alternative worth considering.
Should it and will it replace all growing of foods or cooking of foods, absolutely not. But perhaps it is a reasonable addition to the continuum of possibilities where food is not readily available? Well, that’s the debate we have to have, so let’s have it now.
Have a listen to the segment and then let me know your thoughts (17 minutes).
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is 3D food printing and how close is it to being a practical kitchen technology?
3D food printing involves using additive manufacturing techniques to build food structures layer by layer from food-based feedstocks — typically purees, gels, or powders that can be extruded with precision. In 2015, 3D food printing had genuine applications in: professional and commercial food production (chocolate products, confectionery, and decorative food elements); the food service industry for high-precision decorative work and personalised portion control; and research contexts exploring the structural and nutritional properties of printed food. For domestic kitchen deployment, the technology in 2015 faced significant practical barriers: the feedstock preparation required (most foods need to be converted to printable forms); the time required to print versus conventional cooking; and the cleaning and maintenance complexity. The honest answer is that 3D food printing in 2015 was a technology with genuine commercial niche applications but not a near-term domestic kitchen technology.
Q: What are the genuine applications of food printing technology that have developed since 2015?
The genuine applications that have developed include: precision nutrition (printing foods with specific nutritional profiles for elderly or medical nutrition management, where standard food forms are problematic); personalised portion and shape customisation in commercial food service; confectionery and chocolate design at both professional and consumer hobbyist levels; and research applications in understanding how food structure affects digestion and nutrient availability. The domestic kitchen deployment has remained limited — the technology is more complex, slower, and more demanding of preparation than conventional cooking for most applications. The most successful food printing applications are those where the precision, customisation, or structural capability of printing creates genuine value that conventional methods cannot provide.
Q: What does the food technology signal landscape look like more broadly, beyond 3D printing?
The more consequential food technology signals since 2015 are not in 3D printing but in: precision fermentation (using microorganisms to produce specific proteins, fats, and flavours that are identical to animal-derived products but produced without animals — commercially deployed in multiple ingredient categories by 2025); cultivated meat (growing animal muscle tissue from cells without slaughter — commercially approved in Singapore and the US, with scaling underway); and alternative protein ingredients (plant-based proteins that have moved from niche to mainstream in the period since 2015). These signal trajectories are more structurally significant for the future of food than 3D printing, because they address the environmental and supply chain challenges of the global food system rather than the customisation and production format questions that food printing addresses.
Q: How can I book Morris Misel for a food futures, technology and daily life, or consumer innovation keynote?
Contact the booking team at morrismisel.com/event-organisers.
Bench-tops that turn into convection cooking tops. Weight scales that measure and guide you through the ingredient inclusions. Fridges that talk to your pantry and then let you know what you have and need and order what you don’t and 3D printers that print food ready for you to e.
The window between a signal arriving and it demanding a response is shortening. we print food in our #FutureKitchens is already shaping strategy conversations in forward-looking organisations. Treating it as a future concern rather than a present one builds a preparedness gap that will have to be closed under pressure.
The most important question is not whether we print food in our #FutureKitchens will matter, but how quickly it will matter in your specific context. Leaders benefit most from mapping the ripple effects early — not just the direct impact but the second and third-order consequences that arrive later and hit harder. That is the practical work of foresight.
