Wageningen University & Research: Food from the printer
Printing food sounds futuristic, but that future is approaching fast. And Wageningen is at the forefront; the latest success is a 3D plant-based ‘meat’ printer. ‘The world of food is going to look very different in 10 years’ time.’
In the process hall of the Axis campus building stands 3D printer PSP. The abbreviation stands for Protein Structuring Printer; a machine that prints plant-based ‘meat’ – one of the first in the world. This fulfils the wish of an anonymous donor who gave WUR one million euros to develop the machine nearly two years ago. The generous donor’s assignment was clear: design a 3D printer that can make a vegetarian burger with better sensory properties than those that are currently on the market.
Fibrous structures
And can this printer do that? A cautious ‘yes’ is the answer from project leader Laurice Pouvreau of Wageningen Food & Biobased Research. ‘We have made progress insofar as we can make fibrous structures from plant-based material with a 3D printer. And from these fibrous structure, we can make threads with which shapes can be printed.’ And yes, it has really been used to print a burger. A colleague of Pouvreau even used the product in a meal, and apparently it tasted good. But it is not as though the printer has already gone into mass production of veggie burgers in the process hall. In fact, the apparatus looks a bit forlorn there. To put it more positively, let’s say she is awaiting further developments. The private funding is finished and a proposal for follow upis in progress. Pouvreau believes there is every reason to take the project further as a great deal has been achieved in a short time.
Printed vegetarian meat is still in its infancy. The Israeli company Redefine Meat was first past the post last autumn. Recently, their product has been on the menu at several branches of the Dutch restaurant chain Loetje under the name Biefstuk Bali 0.0. (The 0.0 is a nod to alcohol-free beer.)
It’s striking a balance between printability and the right bite and taste
This development in Israel took the Wageningen researchers by surprise, says food technologist Martijn Noort. He coordinates the 3D activities of the Digital Food Processing Initiative, a collaboration between WUR, TNO and TU/e, which has been working on food printing technologies, including the Protein Structuring Printer, since 2018. ‘It’s a pleasant surprise, though. Ultimately, it is our mission to en suresuch things come into existence.’ How Redefine Meat makes the meat is not clear. According to Noort, the company is approaching printing from themedical angle. ‘There is more than one road that leads to Rome. Many innovations in 3D printing come from tissue culture, so they involve printing ears and other organs. If you can print an ear, you can also print a piece of meat. Even if the raw materials used for it are not edible. We approach 3D printing from a food technology perspective.’
Pouvreau cannot go into detail about Wageningen’s route to Rome because of patent applications. That is also the reason why the printer is still being kept out of the limelight. The basic steps, however, are comparable with techniques such as extrusion and shear cell technology- a process from Wageningen – for making fibrous structures from plant protein ingredients. ‘It is a combination of heating and cooling,’ Pouvreau explains. ‘You have to heat the material to unfold the proteins and create the fibrous structure. Then you have to cool it down to fixate that structure. What we have fine-tuned is the time the material spends being heated and cooled, which is less than a minute in our process. That is very short compared to an extruder (three to five minutes) or a shear cell (up to 20 minutes).’