3D printing is moving into the kitchen - yes soon some of our food will be made in layers.
Barcelona start-up Natural Machines has just launched its new invention: Foodini, a prototype 3D printer that can produce a range of foodstuffs on Kickstarter. Although it is not going to print out whatever you desire, Foodini is able to print savory or sweet cuisine, for example a perfectly-round pizza dough, and put on an even layer of sauce too. It is capable of printing a wide range of real, fresh, nutritious foods, including pastas (ravioli, gnocchi, spaghetti, ...), burgers (veggie and meat), chicken nuggets (and chickpea nuggets as a vegetarian alternative), quiche, pizza, "designer" fish & chips, hash browns, cookies, crackers, brownies, chocolate, etc.
Natural Machines announced its plan to build Foodini food 3D printer last December. Now it looks like food lovers wanting to give the new 3D food printer a space in their kitchens and the backers of its Kickstarter campaign will have to wait until January 2015 getting their Foodini.
Foodini comes with empty food capsules, meaning the consumer prepares and places fresh ingredients in Foodini. All you need to do is load the ingredients into Foodini's food capsules, and then watch different ingredients to be built up in layers following selection of a design on the device's control panel. with room for up to 5 food capsules, consumers don't have to manually change out the food capsules for different ingredients when printing. Foodini will let you pick from a number of pre-tested recipes or even build your own.
As an added ease of use for consumers, Natural Machines says it is also looking into working with retailers that can prepare pre-packaged food capsules made freshly in-store as an alternative option for consumers.
Foodini is connected to the Internet. It has a built in touch screen on the front that provides the user interface for printing food. Once the user chooses the recipe they want to print (from the onboard touchscreen, or from a user's tablet, laptop, etc.), Foodini will instruct what food to put in each capsule, and then printing can begin.
The 3D food printer is designed to be sleek, and most of the technical moving parts are cleverly hidden from view. People will be proud to have Foodini on a kitchen counter. However Foodini doesn't cook food. "Foodini's main purpose is to take on the difficult and/or time-consuming parts of food preparation that often discourage people from creating homemade food." says the company. In its pizza recipe, the dough and sauce are printed, because those are the two most difficult parts of making a pizza by hand. And then the cheese, spices and toppings are done by hand, because it is definitely faster by hand versus printing.
The Foodini is seeking $100,000 on Kickstarter. Kickstarter backers can get a Foodini at a special price $999 from first mass production run, though its retail price is expected to be $1,300.
Since its announcement, Natural Machines has received more than 400 orders for its Foodini, mainly from the United States, China, Brazil, Russia and the Nordic countries. The company says it will start production in China soon.
Is it available in INDIA ? If Yes , What Is the Price ?
I want to buy this, would make a great addition to my family's kitchen.
Cool, any estimate when it will be out of prototype?
where I can buy foodini in Dubai and how much?
3d printing has jumped the shark with this one.