Imagine a machine that prints your favourite food layer by layer and then cooks it with lasers, creating the perfect texture, moisture and browning exactly where you want it. What sounds like science fiction could become a reality as researchers explore a new technology that combines 3D food printing with software-controlled laser cooking.
Scientists led by Jonathan David Blutinger have investigated how lasers can cook 3D-printed food with greater precision than conventional cooking methods. Their experiments used chicken as a model food and demonstrated that laser technology can brown meat, cook it through certain packaging materials and reduce moisture loss compared with traditional oven cooking.
The research could open the door to a new generation of smart kitchen appliances capable of preparing customised meals with greater control over how food looks, feels and tastes.
What Is 3D Food Printing?
Three-dimensional (3D) food printing is a technology that creates edible products by depositing ingredients layer by layer. Similar to how a conventional 3D printer builds an object from plastic or metal, a food printer uses edible materials such as dough, chocolate, purées and other food mixtures to create different shapes and structures.
The technology has been explored since 2007, with researchers investigating ways to produce personalised meals, unusual food designs and products with carefully controlled ingredients.
However, an important problem has remained. Although food printers can deposit ingredients with millimetre-level precision, cooking those ingredients with the same level of control is much more difficult.
For example, a machine might print a layer of chicken followed by carrot purée. The chicken must reach a safe internal temperature while developing the desired surface colour and texture without overcooking the surrounding ingredients.
Conventional ovens and other cooking appliances generally heat food over a relatively large area. They cannot easily target individual sections of a printed meal with the precision needed to cook each layer independently.
To address this limitation, the researchers explored a system that combines food printing with laser-based cooking.
How Does Laser Cooking Work?
Instead of relying on an oven to heat an entire dish, the new approach directs a laser beam towards selected areas of food. Software controls where the beam moves, how long it remains in a particular location and how energy is delivered.
This gives the system greater control over the cooking process.
The research team tested three types of lasers:
Blue laser: Operating at a wavelength of 445 nanometres, it was investigated primarily for heating that penetrates into the food.
Near-infrared (NIR) laser: Operating at 980 nanometres, it was used to investigate heating and browning, including through plastic packaging.
Mid-infrared (MIR) laser: Operating at a wavelength of 10.6 micrometres, it was tested for efficient surface heating and browning.
Each wavelength interacts with food differently. The choice of laser and the pattern in which it scans the surface can therefore influence how the food cooks.
Infrared lasers proved more efficient at browning the chicken than blue light. The experiments also demonstrated that near-infrared light could brown chicken through suitable plastic packaging.
The researchers used a 5–10-watt blue diode laser as their primary heating source and compared laser-cooked samples with chicken prepared in a conventional toaster oven.
Laser Cooking Could Keep Food Juicier
One of the most interesting findings involved moisture retention.
When meat is cooked, it often loses water and shrinks. Excessive moisture loss can leave chicken dry, affecting its texture and overall eating experience.
In the experiments, laser-cooked chicken experienced approximately 50 per cent less cooking loss than chicken broiled in an oven. Cooking loss refers to the reduction in food weight during cooking, largely because of moisture loss.
This result suggests that carefully directing heat towards selected areas may help preserve more of the food's original weight and moisture.
The research team also conducted a small blind taste test in which two testers sampled laser-cooked and conventionally cooked printed chicken. Both appeared to prefer the laser-cooked sample, describing it as moister and more uniform in texture.
However, this was a very small taste test. Larger studies involving more participants would be needed to determine whether people consistently prefer laser-cooked food.
Nevertheless, the findings indicate that laser cooking could offer benefits beyond appearance and food design.
Cooking With Millimetre-Level Precision
Another important feature of the technology is its reported cooking resolution of approximately one millimetre.
This means the laser can target small sections of a food surface, allowing different areas to receive different amounts of heat.
Consider a burger that needs to be cooked to different levels of doneness in different places. With suitable software and further technological development, a food printer equipped with a laser cooker could potentially create a pattern in which some sections are lightly cooked while others are more thoroughly cooked.
The same principle could be used to create checkerboard patterns, gradients, decorative designs and other customised appearances.
Food preparation could eventually become as programmable as digital printing. Users might select a recipe, adjust the desired cooking pattern and allow the machine to control the heating process.
This could be particularly useful for personalised meals, where people want greater control over the texture, appearance and preparation of individual food components.
However, the reported one-millimetre resolution should not be confused with the ability to guarantee a precise internal doneness at every point. The depth of heating, food thickness, moisture content and other factors also influence the final result.
Could Lasers Cook Food Through Packaging?
The researchers also demonstrated that near-infrared laser light could brown chicken through suitable plastic packaging, with approximately 90 per cent of the light transmitted through the tested plastic.
This capability could have important applications for packaged food.
If developed further, laser-based systems might allow selected foods to be heated or browned while remaining sealed inside compatible packaging. Keeping food sealed during processing could help reduce exposure to outside contaminants.
Such an approach could be useful for packaged ready-to-eat meals, grocery products and specialised food-processing systems.
However, cooking through packaging would require careful testing. The packaging material must safely withstand the process, the food must reach appropriate temperatures throughout, and the system must be validated to control harmful microorganisms. Laser heating alone does not automatically guarantee food safety or longer shelf life.
What Are the Current Limitations?
Despite its potential, laser cooking is still at an experimental stage and faces several challenges before it can become a common kitchen technology.
One major limitation is the depth to which laser energy can directly penetrate food. Because different wavelengths interact with food differently, the current approach is particularly suited to thin layers rather than thick pieces of meat.
Cooking thicker foods evenly may require more powerful lasers, different scanning patterns or a combination of surface heating and heat conduction through the food.
The researchers also identified several areas requiring further investigation, including how successive printed layers stick together after cooking, how multiple laser wavelengths could work simultaneously and how cross-contamination between raw and cooked ingredients can be prevented.
Cooking speed is another important consideration. Higher-powered lasers may reduce processing time, but their performance, energy consumption, cost and safety would need to be evaluated in practical applications.
Could This Technology Change Our Kitchens?
The combination of 3D food printing and laser cooking could eventually transform how meals are designed and prepared.
Future appliances might allow users to customise individual portions, create complex food structures and control browning with software. Restaurants could experiment with new food designs, while manufacturers could explore more flexible ways to produce specialised meals.
The technology could also support decentralised food production, allowing some products to be prepared closer to where they are consumed rather than relying entirely on conventional large-scale manufacturing.
For consumers, the biggest attraction may be personalisation: food prepared according to individual preferences rather than a one-size-fits-all cooking process.
Still, these possibilities depend on further research, improved equipment, food-safety validation and affordable commercial designs.
Conclusion
Laser-based cooking could represent an important step towards making food preparation more precise, programmable and customisable. By combining 3D printing with different laser wavelengths, researchers have demonstrated a way to cook printed chicken, improve browning control, retain more moisture and target small areas with millimetre-level precision.
The technology is not yet a replacement for conventional ovens, and several technical and safety challenges remain. However, it offers a glimpse of a future in which cooking machines could do more than simply heat food.
They could print a meal, cook each layer according to its needs and create customised textures and appearances using software.
If these developments progress successfully, the kitchen of the future may not just be about following recipes. It could be about digitally designing exactly how food is made and cooked.
Reference: Blutinger, J.D., Tsai, A., Storvick, E. et al. Precision cooking for printed foods via multiwavelength lasers. npj Sci Food 5, 24 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41538-021-00107-1
Comments
Post a Comment