TastePrint: A 3D Food Printing System for Layer-wise Taste Distribution via Airbrushed Liquid Seasoning

TL;DR

TastePrint is a novel 3D food printing system that enables layer-wise spatial distribution of taste by dynamically applying liquid seasonings with an airbrush, allowing for customizable taste profiles.

Contribution

The paper introduces TastePrint, a system combining hardware and software to achieve controllable, spatially varied taste distribution in 3D printed foods, which was not previously possible.

Findings

Spray-resolution model achieved R^2 = 0.86.

Spray-amount model achieved R^2 = 0.99.

Participants identified centralized seasoning as more localized in 67.5% of trials.

Abstract

3D food printing enables the customization of food shapes and textures, but typically produces uniform taste profiles due to the limited diversity of printable materials. We present TastePrint, a 3D food printing system that achieves layer-wise spatial taste distribution by dynamically applying liquid seasonings with a programmable airbrush during fabrication. The system integrates (1) a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows users to import 3D models, slice them into layers, and specify seasoning channels, spray positions, and intensities, and (2) a customized 3D food printer equipped with a multi-nozzle spray mechanism. We evaluated the system through technical experiments quantifying spray resolution and deposition accuracy, a minimal sensory discrimination study on taste localization, and an exploratory formative user-feedback study involving three home cooks. The spray-resolution model achieved $R^2 = 0.86$, and the spray-amount model achieved $R^2 = 0.99$. The filter-paper calibration showed broad consistency with measurements obtained on edible mashed-potato samples. In the sensory discrimination study, participants identified the centralized seasoning pattern as more localized in 27 of 40 trials (67.5 %). These findings indicate that TastePrint can provide repeatable hardware-level control over seasoning placement and quantity while offering initial evidence that spatial taste arrangement can remain perceptually meaningful after fabrication.