3-D Printable Food Gets Funding From NASA

cervesaebraciator writes "According to Quartz, '[Anjan Contractor's] Systems & Materials Research Corporation just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer. But Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a background in 3-D printing, envisions a much more mundane — and ultimately more important — use for the technology. He sees a day when every kitchen has a 3-D printer, and the earth's 12 billion people feed themselves customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. Contractor's vision would mean the end of food waste, because the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30 years, so that each cartridge, whether it contains sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein or some other basic building block, would be fully exhausted before being returned to the store.' No word yet on whether anyone other than the guy trying to sell the technology thinks it'll make palatable food."

Tea Earl Grey Hot

[Hsien-Ko]

The replicator!!!

Almost there

[ArcadeMan]

We already eat foods that could be stored for years.

But I still prefer to dry-freeze them in blocks and then cut them up on my CNC into regular food shapes.

Re:This is against current food movements.

[h4rr4r]

Please tell me what this chemical free food is?

Make sure there is none of that dihydrogen monoxide in it, that stuff is lethal.

H2G2G

[dabadab]

OK, so who will be the first to post the phrase "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea"?

Oh, it was me.

Re:H2G2G

[Intrepid imaginaut]

Taste Tester: It tastes...familiar.
Linda: Like beef?
Taste Tester: No...
Ted: Or chicken? We'll take chicken.
Taste Tester: No, it tastes like...despair?

Re:Tea Earl Grey Hot

[optikos]

No, its the pastel glop served at the restaurant during the restaurant in the 1985 Terry Gilliam film _Brazil_.

Oh good grief

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a paste that's squeezed through a tube with a nozzle. I better tell my neighborhood pastry chef he's using a 3 D printer. Can we PLEASE stop this overhyping of 3D printing? It's gotten to the point that "3D printing" is a meaningless phrase!

Here's another food 3D printer! [hisupplier.com]

Wow!

Re:No More Food Waste? My Ass.

[Anonymous Coward]

that's PC LOAD LETTUCE you insensitive clod!!!

pink slime or cheetos?

[Thud457]

Tea, Earl Grey, Hot!

the Nutri-Matic machine provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

Re:Rendezvous with Rama

[oPless]

Surely you mean his little known novella Rendezvous with Ramen?

Re:Almost there

[Anonymous Coward]

Next step: Eatable gun! You can eat away the evidence. :P

Re:Almost there

[Genda]

Talk about explosive flatulence!