Posted on 12/31/2014 2:39:55 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Food researchers in the US Army are looking into ways to 3D print food for soldiers. According to a press release, Army food technologists say that 3D printed food could produce meals on demand for soldiers in the battlefield.
With 3D technology, food can be tailored to a soldier’s nutritional needs. Because the Army’s Meal Ready-to-Eat (MRE) standard for food has a shelf life of three years, 3D printing creates new options that could make meals have longer and more stable shelf lives according to Lauren Oleksyk, Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC).
Earlier this month in December 2014, the pasta company Barilla announced a project and contest to 3D print its pasta. More than 530 national and international product designers submitted entries for new 3D printed pasta that would challenge the concept of the pasta – and make it 3D printable.
“Printing of food is definitely a burgeoning science,” Oleksyk said....
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Search the keyword “3Dprinting” here and prepare to be amazed.
3D printing glass bottles, glasses, a tray, wine, and food is maybe 15 years away? Would you be loading the printer with alcohol, and grape juice, or will we be technologically capable of rearranging molecules at will within 15 years - such that we can instantaneously create/print/whatever a nice bottle of fine Cabernet?
Don’t think of it as “printing”, think of it as distributed manufacturing. Plenty of food are already manufactured, so why not move the point of manufacture to where they will be consumed, if it is economical?
Here’s the thing, of course if you are on base, you can prepare normal meals, and prepare them anyway you like or need to. They aren’t talking about replacing that, they are talking about replacing MREs. If they have to prepare and package those things in advance, then they cannot tailor them to meet any specific need.
Now, if you can manufacture the same kinds of food that would be in the MRE (or better food hopefully), right where the soldier is in the field, then you can customize it to whatever your needs of the moment are. I think that is what he was getting at.
“Sorry, Private Drill, it appears the dot-matrix is stuck on Ham and Lima Beans.”
Thanks. Not really sure how much difference in “need” could be involved. Pack a nutritious meal while away from the mess. That’s always worked. If a particular soldier really seriously needs something special ???? Pack it in his lunch pail. Second note: any specially- needed Ingredients would have to be packed by or for the soldier anyway (only now also with a 3-D printer to “print” them out for him. The same ingredients could just be out in his sandwich to begin with, no 3D printer required either at the camp mess kitchen or on the soldier’s back. But I’m olde- fashioned. Happy New Year!
I liked the ham and lima beans, beans & franks and the ham & scrambled eggs concoction.
Spoken like a true C-rat connoisseur. The pound cake will break many a printer, mark my words.
Ever had the Collin Street Bakery’s Fruit Cake?
half the links are still porn. :-)
problem is if anything happens to that printer you’re not eating.
The day they can 3D print a good Scotch and a cigar is the day...well, I probably won’t remember that day.
If you are going to 3D print anything then 3D print government workers who don’t need pay or benefits and can actually perform their jobs!
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