3D-printed food: from niche technology to a potential future

3D printers can now transform more than two dozen types of food into edible shapes. While the technology remains costly and impractical for everyday use, experts see significant potential in clinics, care homes and personalised nutrition. 3D printers have long since moved beyond producing plastic parts. Increasingly, they are also being used to print food: instead of plastic filament, the machines extrude soft ingredients such as chocolate, cheese or plant-based meat alternatives through a nozzle, building them up layer by layer. The desired shape must first be designed on a computer. Several manufacturers are already established in the market, including the Ukrainian-Bulgarian company Chocola3D, the Spanish provider Natural Machines and the German firm Print2Taste. So far, the technology has mainly been used in niche applications, from patisseries to hospitals, while a breakthrough into everyday life has yet to materialise. Printer can process more than 26 materials According to the manufacturer, Chocola3D has been in development since 2014, with the company itself founded a few years later. The company says customers are now using the device in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Germany and Estonia. Users fill refillable syringes with pastes such as chocolate, cheese, meat, vegetables or pea protein. In total, the system is said to work with more than 26 different materials. Unlike devices that use closed capsule systems, the Chocola3D does not tie users to specific refills. However, users have to determine the appropriate printing settings themselves. Depending on the manufacturer, food printers can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand euros. The shape of the food is designed digitally Food technologist Mario Jekle from the University of Hohenheim is researching the technology independently of individual manufacturers. The individual steps are familiar from any kitchen, he explains in an interview with Euronews: “We first produce a fine paste, for example. This paste is then shaped, which is exactly what you do at home with a piping bag when making fine pastries. Then everything is heated, just as it would be at home in an oven or a pan.” What is new above all, he says, is the digital preparation: “Bringing everything together, and above all the digital design.” The shape of the final product must first be created digitally. Confectioners are already using the technology to make marzipan figures for wedding cakes. According to Jekle, its potential lies above all in customised products or small production runs of up to around 200 items. The bigger challenge comes after printing: the material has to be deposited in liquid form but must then become firm enough to be eaten with a knife and fork. This can be achieved by heating it in an oven or in a heated printing chamber. Printing a plant-based steak at home could take just 15 minutes Jekle also describes what using a food printer in everyday life could look like. Someone wanting to print a plant-based steak alternative would simply send the design to the printer, with the process taking between five and 15 minutes. The digital templates could come “either from databases, from an app, or from the specifications of the cartridge.” For Jekle, the key advantage lies in the precise control of ingredients through a kind of modular building-block system. A printed meat alternative could, for example, have a significantly higher fibre content “than conventional meat, which contains no dietary fibre in the first place”. He estimates that widespread household use is still at least five to ten years away, and there is currently no supply chain for refill packs. Jekle also believes it is important to use raw materials that require as little processing as possible. His team works, for example, with by-products from the food and agricultural industries – residual streams that are generated as part of conventional production – and uses 3D printing to turn them into new foods. The less a raw material needs to be processed beforehand, the less energy is required – a benefit, Jekle says, for both the environment and consumers’ budgets. Applications in medicine and care The technology is most advanced in areas where small quantities need to be dosed precisely. As reported by the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, a team at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf is testing raspberry-flavoured chewable tablets in the shape of hearts and stars, designed to make it easier for children with cancer to take their medication during chemotherapy. Many children struggle with the taste or size of conventional tablets, says senior physician Beate Winkler. The hospital is also conducting trials of individually dosed medication for patients with Parkinson’s disease. 3D-printed food could also help older people who have difficulty chewing or swallowing. Nutrition scientist Dorothee Volkert from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg investigated whether 3D printing could restore familiar shapes to puréed food – for example, creating a sausage-shaped dish that retains the appearance of the original despite its puréed consistency. The response was positive, and participants also consumed more energy and protein than before, as additional protein and fat can be incorporated into the food. Meat from the 3D printer: many consumers remain sceptical A representative Bitkom survey (source in German) of 1,004 people aged 16 and over, conducted in 2025, shows how open people in Germany are to the idea of printed food. At present, 24 percent of people in Germany can imagine eating cultivated meat produced using a 3D printer, up from 13 percent six years ago. Cultivated meat is grown from animal cells in a bioreactor and given a meat-like structure using the printer. Openness is greatest among younger people: around one third of those aged 16 to 49 would consider eating it, compared with 18 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds and 14 percent of those aged 65 and over. Margareta Maier from Bitkom explains: “The process makes it possible to give products an appearance and texture similar to conventional meat, while having a significantly smaller ecological footprint.” Price remains an obstacle: only 7 percent would be willing to pay more for 3D-printed meat than for conventional meat, and 17 percent regard it generally as a luxury product. Maier attributes this to the high purchase costs and the specialised ingredients: “That is why these products are not yet suitable for the mass market and are currently used mainly in catering and the food industry.” How advanced is the technology? Researcher Mario Jekle stresses that 3D-printed food is not intended to replace conventional food production: “We have no vision of replacing half of food production with this in the future. That is a utopia – and a misguided one at that.” He sees the technology as particularly useful for people who do not have time to cook and for groups with specific nutritional needs, such as patients in hospitals or residents of care homes: “In effect, it gives us a way of producing food specifically for these smaller, clearly defined groups, containing exactly what they need.” Another advantage, according to Jekle, is the potential to reduce food waste, as portions could be tailored more precisely to individual needs. A plant-based salmon alternative made using a 3D printer is already available in a major supermarket chain. However, it will still be some time before food printers become common household appliances. As with 3D-printed houses, the technology is already viable for specific applications, but there is still a long way to go before it becomes part of everyday life.