# Recent Advances in 3D Food Printing: A Review with Focus on Personalized Nutrition and Functional Food Applications

## TL;DR

3D food printing can create personalized, nutritious foods to address malnutrition and improve consumer acceptance of fortified foods.

## Contribution

This paper reviews recent advancements in 3D food printing with a focus on its potential for personalized nutrition and functional food applications.

## Key findings

- 3D food printing can produce nutrient-rich foods with customized designs.
- Extrusion-based 3D printing is a key technology for creating functional foods.
- The technology has potential to revolutionize the functional food industry.

## Abstract

The 3D printing technique offers immense opportunities to manufacture foods tailored to individual preferences, with added benefits to address malnutrition. Malnutrition is a major public health issue that impedes the development of nations worldwide. Fortification with functional ingredients is a promising approach to combat this problem. However, consumer acceptance of fortified foods remains low due to their bland taste and unfamiliar formats. This situation has created the demand for customized, fortified products made with novel technologies like 3D printing. This review compiles research findings from the last 15 years on 3D printing in food manufacturing. It provides a detailed review on various technological options available for 3D printing, with emphasis on recent research related to functional food. Previous studies have demonstrated that 3D food printing is a highly promising novel technology capable of providing personalized nutrition. 3D food printers primarily use extrusion technology to create nutrient-rich food products in various 3D designs, meeting both the aesthetic and functional preferences of consumers. This technology is expected to revolutionize the functional food industry in the near future, due to its various applications.