Biopsychosocial Validation of 3D Food Printing

Toala, Emily; Mateo, Leslie

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Biopsychosocial Validation of 3D Food Printing

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This study investigated how food additive manufacturing technology could be used to create a nutritional food product (“bar”) with appropriate structural, nutritional, and visual properties. The research team developed a feedstock formulation for a three-layer bar and optimized printing parameters to produce high-quality prints. Both printing and post-processing parameters were modified to change the interior structure of the bar and, therefore, change the bar's texture. Mechanical testing, including Young’s modulus and yield strength, was performed to determine the relationship between the texture and mechanical strength. Coupled with a consumer rating study (i.e., a taste test) with naïve human participants, a viability evaluation was performed. Aggregate results demonstrated that the bar is viable at certain ranges at each temperature interval. At 275°F the only viable Young’s modulus was 11.74 x 10^6 Pa. At 300°F, the viable range was between 1.26 x 10^6 to 16.3 x 10^6 Pa. At 325°F, the viable range was between 2.77 x 10^6 to 12.5 x 10^6 Pa. Lastly, at 350°F the viable range was between 13.54 x 10^6 to 28.17 x 10^6 Pa. Overall consumer satisfaction of the final iteration of the bar received an average 5.0 on a scale of 1.0 to 6.0. Overall, these results support the suitability of our bar formulation and printing parameters for further development and scaling.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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