New technologies in food industry - 3D printing

Today the achievements of scientific and technological progress have been widely developed in various industries, including the food industry. The use of achievements of fundamental research has contributed to the development of new machines and devices, technologies, methods and ways of creating products, widespread use of ideas that once had been revolutionary in everyday life. One of the trends is 3D printing. 3D printing is the production process by means of collection of the layers of basic material for the creation of three-dimensional physical object based on its digital model. The majority of companies engaged in 3DP in the field of research and development, production and promotion of ideas, implementation of models of existing printing devices, associated consumables and software are concentrated mainly in the USA and among EU nations (65.6 %). The model of 3DP implementation in the food industry is presented. It is shown that everything starts with an idea, then the process of its realization takes place, using a specific set of knowledge in the field of food chemistry, food hygiene, processes and equipment for food production and information technology, and ends with the final result, which is a food product. The main method of food production with the use of 3DP is fused deposition modeling (FDM), which is associated with the specificity of raw material for the manufacture of final food products. Now the majority of 3D food printers is represented either in conceptual models, experimental or pre-sales samples, or more rarely in commercial systems. It is found that 3DP will progress in the food industry, including by further development of existing principles and technologies of printing, as well as by creating and developing new futuristic ideas, which are researched and developed actively by the teams of innovators.