$1,500 Foodini 3D prints food with normal kitchen ingredients

Over the past several months, we’ve seen machines that 3D print food go from silly to intriguingly promising. One of the best we’ve seen so far is Foodini, a kitchen appliance made by ironically named Natural Machines, Barcelona. It will go on sale soon for about $1,400.

Elisabeth Eitel Blog

May 30, 2014

2 min read

Machinedesign Com Sites Machinedesign com Files Uploads 2014 05 Foodini 3 D Printing Burger

The machine connects to the Internet, and the user selects an online recipe from its touchscreen, or from a networked iPad or laptop. Then the machine displays instructions for what food ingredients it needs to complete the recipe.

All foods must be a thin paste-type consistency.

The user puts the food in a capsule that loads into the machine, and presto! Foodini extrudes the paste onto a plate — which can act as a hotplate to 200° F for recipes that call for it — and solidifies on the fly.

Once they’re done, the pieces of food, whether art-quality candies, pastries, pasta, pizza, or quiche, can be boiled, baked, or eaten as appropriate.

This is the beautiful thing about Foodini: It accepts prepared capsules (that the user buys from the manufacturer) or it accepts general-use capsules that the user fills with home-prepared ingredients. For the latter, the user just blends, grinds, or processes the food before putting it into the capsule.

About the Author

Elisabeth Eitel Blog

Elisabeth is Senior Editor of Machine Design magazine. She has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Fenn College at Cleveland State University. Over the last decade, Elisabeth has worked as a technical writer — most recently as Chief Editor of Motion System Design magazine.