Recent advances and future perspective in additive manufacturing of foods based on 3D printing

3D printing aims at building a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design model. More recently, (4D)-printing has appeared; it adds to (3D)-printing, a transformation of the printed material over time. (3D)-printing applied to foods has a unique potential to create geometric complex structures, enabling mass production while having economic and environment benefits. It permits to create personalized food based with specific properties related to nutritional needs, calorie intake, specific shape, texture, color, or flavor, for example. Currently, four types of 3D food printing technology have been explored: extrusion, inkjet, binder jetting, and selective sintering. In the literature, most of the investigations focus on improving the quality of the resolution of printed food whereas very few studies focus on developing technology that will give access large scale production systems. This review proposes a state-of-the-art major recent investigations in the 3D food printing field and its future perspectives.