Wacky World of Choc Wednesdays: Chocolate Printing
One of the news stories making its way through both the geek and chocolate worlds this week has to do with a 3D printer that prints with chocolate.
From the press release, entitled “The future of gift shopping – design and print your own 3D chocolate objects”:
Using new digital technology the printer allows you to create your own designs on a computer and reproduce them physically in three dimensional form in chocolate.
The project is funded as part of the Research Council UK Cross-Research Council Programme – Digital Economy and is managed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) on behalf of ESRC, AHRC and MRC. It is being led by the University of Exeter in collaboration with the University of Brunel and software developer Delcam.
3D printing is a technology where a three dimensional object is created by building up successive layers of material. The technology is already used in industry to produce plastic and metal products but this is the first time the principles have been applied to chocolate.
The research has presented many challenges. Chocolate is not an easy material to work with because it requires accurate heating and cooling cycles. These variables then have to be integrated with the correct flow rates for the 3D printing process. Researchers overcame these difficulties with the development of new temperature and heating control systems.
There are a number of enthusiastic posts from the geek/tech world that explain the implications of a product like this, e.g.:
Chocolate Printer Is Here; Foodies of the World Celebrate, from PC World
UK researchers developing 3D printer that crafts with chocolate, from Digital Trends
Chocolate 3-D Printer Arrives At Last, from Wired
The printer sounds like a neat way to be creative with chocolate, though I expect that fine chocolate connoisseurs are with me in wondering how much the chocolate quality will be compromised. It’s also not yet widely available for use, so those of us eager to see it in action will just have to wait. The good news is, if you’re a handy geek and would like to make a 3D chocolate printer at home, say, with LEGOs, there’s an Instructable for that!
For a number of years, of course, there has been a robust business around printing on chocolate. Consumers can do things like personalize their M&Ms and put their faces on lollipops with relative ease. There is even a food printer that can print white ink on thin sheets of dark chocolate [video].
Sweden-based MasterPiece Systems and US-based Chocolography are just two of the companies offering sophisticated equipment that can print on chocolate.
Check out this sultry video for a demo of the MX-315 from MasterPiece Systems:
And here’s an interview with Mark Weiss of Chocolography with more details about how the printer works:
The growing industry of printing with or on food is a fun and quirky one. And throwing chocolate into the mix is just brilliant. Thinking on it now, I am reminded of this quote from Patrick Skene Catling’s The Chocolate Touch: “Chocolate all the time… Chocolate’s best, that’s all. Other things are just food. But chocolate’s chocolate.”
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Bittersweet Notes is an open source research project on chocolate, culture, and the politics of food. I invite you to join me as I explore the story of chocolate and the life stories of those involved with chocolate at its many stages of production and consumption.
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