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Recent Advances in Inks for 3D Food Printing: A Review

M. Ritota,Sahara Melloni,Giulia Cianfrini,V. Narducci,Stefania Ruggeri,V. Turfani

Published 2025 in Applied Sciences

ABSTRACT

The integration of 3D printers into food production represents an unprecedented innovation, envisaging applications from the industry to missions in space to home cooking, with no geographical or sectoral limits. Extrusion food 3D printers are designed to use ‘food inks’ that must be produced from raw materials possessing a range of suitable characteristics (viscosity, elasticity, and others) that make them printable. Not all food matrices possess such characteristics, and additives are often needed to formulate food inks, which must also adapt to the complexity of the 3D model to be printed. Initially, mainly food matrices such as potatoes, chocolate, cereal, and legume flours and soluble-fiber-rich additives were tested with this new technology, with promising results. In recent years, alternative food matrices (e.g., based on insects, algae, cultured meat, and food waste) have begun to be experimented with, as 3D printing appears to be a suitable way to exploit their potential. This review aims to highlight recent studies that have investigated the development of innovative food ink formulations and trace a picture of the new food raw materials that are being tested for 3D food printing, the opportunities they represent, their nutritional properties, safety, and technological challenges. This review considered a total of 46 papers, selected from 330 papers published in the last 8 years (2018–2025) on the generic subject of 3D food printing.

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