Impact of internal structural design on quality and nutritional properties of 3D printed food products during post-printing: a critical review

Abstract

3D food printing (3DFP) provides an excellent opportunity to deposit layers of multiple food materials to create unique complex structures of products with more engaging visuals, specific textures, and customized nutritional properties. Many printed products require post-printing processing which can result in sensory variance, texture changes, and even nutritional modification. Hence it is necessary to implement the design of the complex internal structure to ensure the desired quality of the printed products following post-printing. 3-D printing of various types of food products, for example, chocolate, cheese, meat, vegetables, fruits, fish, eggs, cereal-based products, and so on, has been examined with regard to post-printing requirements. This review aims to summarize the current work on the latest developments in 3DFP technology concerning the internal structure design of 3D printed products and its effect on quality during post-printing. The quality parameters include: textural, physical, morphological, and dimensional characteristics as well as nutritional properties. Furthermore, post-printing modifications such as 4D are also analyzed.

Keywords:

• 3D food printing
• internal structure
• post-printing
• nutritional properties

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation Program of China (No. 31872902), National First-class Discipline Program of Food Science and Technology (No. JUFSTR20180205) and Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory Project of Advanced Food Manufacturing Equipment and Technology (No. FMZ202003).