3D printing of meat.
TL;DR: A temperature-controlled extruder-type 3D printer built with multi-head system is suggested to suit the required conditions for meat safety and rheological requirements and the elemental aspects affecting the printability and post-processing feasibility of 3D printed meat products.
About: This article is published in Meat Science.The article was published on 2019-07-01 and is currently open access. It has received 136 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Meat packing industry.
Summary (4 min read)
Jump to: [Introduction] – [Contents] – [3D Printing process 2.] – [2.1 Current application of 3DP in food products] – [2.2 3D Printing of meat] – [2.3 3D Food printers and printing parameters] – [2.4 Printing conditions to enable 3D printing of meat] – [2.5 Design development] – [2.6 3D Printing methodologies suitable for meat materials] – [3.1 Potential viscosity enhancers and binders for printable meat paste] – [Declarations of interest 6.] and [Highlights]
Introduction
- AC C EP TE D M AN U SC R IP T 1 Three-dimensional printing (3DP) process stands as a developing technology for food manufacturing, which offers the opportunity to design novel food products with improved nutritional value and sensorial profile.
- This review analyses the potential applications of 3DP technology for meat processing and the elemental aspects affecting the printability and postprocessing feasibility of 3D printed meat products.
- The combination of nutritionally balanced ingredients and novel internal structures may be schemed into a multi-material 3D model that meets special individual needs, such as chewing and swallowing difficulties.
- Furthermore, a temperature-controlled extruder-type 3D printer built with multi-head system is suggested to suit the required conditions for meat safety and rheological requirements.
Contents
- 17 Introduction 1. Only 7.2% in weight of a cattle carcase accounts for cuts that are considered suitable for high-value steaks (Conroy, Drennan, Kenny, & McGee, 2010).
- Based on the additive manufacturing (AM) process, which consists of a layer-by-layer deposition with predetermined thickness to create complex freeform structures (Noorani, 2017), 3DP offers the possibility of manufacturing novel food products with digitalized intricate shapes, inexperienced textures and higher nutritional value, through the combination of different food ingredients and printing methodologies.
- The printability of any food material refers to its ability to be handled and dispensed by a 3D printer into a freeform structure after deposition (Godoi et al., 2016), and is affected by the printing conditions and the rheological properties of the materials (Kim, Bae, & Park, 2017).
- Likewise, Liu et al. (2018a) were able to 3D print chicken, pork and fish in a slurry form with the addition of gelatine solution.
3D Printing process 2.
- Three-dimensional printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), is a process that generates freeform structures by introducing a prototype into a computer aided design (CAD) software, which is then converted into a .STL file by a slicing software to be recognised and processed by 3D printers (Noorani, 2017).
- The technology involves a layer-by-layer ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT AC C EP TE D M AN U SC R IP T 6 deposition with predetermined thickness to create complex three-dimensional objects from different materials used as “inks”, using strictly the necessary amount of material to consolidate the shape of the printed object.
- 3DP offers an alternative technology with sustainability benefits such as reduced demand of raw materials, workforce, energy and transportation (Peng, 2016; Sher & Tutó, 2015).
- Besides waste conversion through the added-value chain, the development of health and well-being products, as well as novel food interactions may be triggered.
- Some of these aspects, as reported in the literature, include but are not limited to the printing machines, methodologies, prototype design and software, food ingredients and additives, processing parameters, and post-processing suitability (Liu, Zhang, Bhandari, & Wang, 2017) applied to each 3D printed food manufacturing process.
2.1 Current application of 3DP in food products
- In the last decade, 3DP technology for food products has increasingly developed through its application to a wide range of food materials.
- Nonetheless, few studies (Lipton et al., 2010; Lipton, Cutler, Nigl, Cohen, & Lipson, 2015; Severini et al., 2016a) have taken into account the post-processing feasibility of the 3D construct for materials such as dough or meat, which require further heat treatment; for instance, its ability to withstand cooking operations without losing the 3D intricate design due to cooking loss/shrinkage.
- In general, there is still an extensive field for research regarding the application of this technology for a broad range of foodstuffs with varying formulations.
2.2 3D Printing of meat
- To date, only a small number of studies account for the printability of fibrous-meat materials, through the assessment of the rheological properties of the meat “ink”, as well as the postdeposition and post-processing properties of the printed object.
- Also, the same slurry was used to print a cube containing celery fluid gel inside.
- Such introductory results in 3D meat printing show how this technology can further generate meat products with complex internal structure, containing on-demand functional ingredients and modified textures for enhanced eating experiences.
- Recently the printability of fish surimi gel was assessed by Wang et al. (2018) using a screw-conveyor extruder type 3D printer.
- Furthermore, the authors evaluated the effect of printer settings on the geometrical precision and dimension of the deposited structures, although no objective comparison was performed among printed structures, such as the post-deposition and postprocessing properties.
2.3 3D Food printers and printing parameters
- The basic components of a 3D food printer stage include a motor-driven print-head and a platform, commonly attached to a stage with Cartesian configuration (Sun, Zhou, Yan, Huang, & Lin, 2018).
- Based on the 3D printing methodology built into the 3D printer, the print-head and platform characteristics may vary.
- Some previous studies on meat and seafood printing focused on the extrusion and printing process (Kouzani et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2018a), post-deposition and post-processing conditions (Lipton et al., 2010), rheological and mechanical properties of the material (Wang et al., 2018), regardless of safety concerns during printing due to the printer’s limitations.
- When a printer is not attached with cooling system, the suitability of the technology for the processing of highly perishable materials like meat is dependent on the initial meat paste temperature and the period of time that the meat paste remains in the cartridge or platform at ambient temperature.
2.4 Printing conditions to enable 3D printing of meat
- Several studies demonstrate the effect of varying printing processing parameters on the printability of food materials and hence, the quality of the final printed objects.
- Similarly, an optimal nozzle height determines the accuracy and dimensions of the printed meat product, and it is suggested to be equivalent to the dimension of the nozzle diameter.
- If the nozzle speed is too high, a thinner stream of meat paste is obtained and dragged, preventing the subsequent binding of layers and producing inaccuracies in the final product since voids remain within the cross-section area, and under deposition may occur.
- Similarly, varying infill percentages will affect the total amount of deposited material in the internal part of the printed structure, affecting the void fraction within the final 3D printed meat product and thus the post-processing conditions.
- The void fraction would determine the cooking conditions for a specific degree of doneness since as more porosity remains within the structure, less heat transfer occurs during cooking, affecting the moisture and fat releases and thus the texture of the cooked meat product.
2.5 Design development
- The in-software design for a determined 3D printed meat product sculpts its nutritional and sensorial profile.
- Even though the rheology of the meat paste may represent a challenge when reproducing such complex patterns, these approaches could provide food consumers with both on-demand nutrition and novel eating experiences.
- As an example, three hypothetical designs (Autodesk, Inc.), such as sausage, steak and beef patty are shown in Figure 8.
- Recombined meats, such as steaks can be 3D printed as a multi-material model from soft meat paste, fat slurry and other food ingredients to approximate the flavours and nutrients of a beefsteak.
- The model is sliced into 2D cross-sectional layers, according to the required design and printing settings (Noorani, 2017).
2.6 3D Printing methodologies suitable for meat materials
- A variety of 3DP methods has been used for food printing, such as extrusion, inkjet printing, binding deposition, and bioprinting (Godoi et al., 2016), which are commonly applied to paste-like materials, liquid-based foods, powder-based foods, and cultured cells, respectively.
- 3D printing of meat products consists of building the desired geometry from a slurry material, which requires controlled temperature below 4 °C, calling for liquid-based methodologies, such as extrusion and/or inkjet printing.
- Among the available extrusion mechanisms (syringe-based, air pressure-driven and screw-based extrusion), air pressure driven extrusion is not recommended for viscous paste materials due to their ease of attaching to the walls of the cartridge (Sun et al., 2018), and thus is not endorsed for 3D printing of meat paste.
- After fusion, the agarose structure is removed and the tissue is subjected to low-frequency stimulation in a bioreactor to maturate meat fibres (Sher et al., 2015).
- First, as a fibrous material, the raw meat needs to be finely comminute into a paste form with controlled particle size to enable the extrusion through the nozzle of mm to micron size.
3.1 Potential viscosity enhancers and binders for printable meat paste
- The viscosity of the paste has to be low enough to flow easily through the nozzle and high enough to maintain the deposited shape (Godoi et al., 2016), and further support the subsequent layers on top.
- To improve the mechanical stability of the paste upon deposition, heat- and cold- set binders are available based on the temperature required for the occurrence of the binding mechanisms that are described below.
- Furthermore, the addition of salts and phosphates is recommended to aid the extraction of salt soluble proteins, such as myofribrillar and some sarcoplasmic (Boles, 2011), and thus increase the binding matrix.
- In general, the addition of different food hydrocolloids to the meat paste can provide modified rheological and mechanical properties through varying binding mechanisms, enhancing its printability and post-processing viability.
- Very few studies refer to the printability of fibrous meat materials, such as pork, turkey, chicken and fish, while no data is available for beef meat.
Declarations of interest 6.
- This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
- Meat Products Handbook - Practical Science and Technology: Woodhead Publishing.
- 3D printing technologies applied for food design: status and prospects.
Highlights
- Multi-material 3D printing allows the production of recombined meats.
- The design of appetizing soft-meat products is viable with 3D printing technology.
- Low temperature-3D printers are needed to process meat products safely.
- The application of heat- and cold-set binders enhances the meat paste rheology.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present seventeen articles dealing with social, economic and institutional dynamics of precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming or agriculture 4.0, and reveal new insights on the link between digital agriculture and farm diversity, new economic, business and institutional arrangements both on-farm, in the value chain and food system, and in the innovation system.
Abstract: While there is a lot of literature from a natural or technical sciences perspective on different forms of digitalization in agriculture (big data, internet of things, augmented reality, robotics, sensors, 3D printing, system integration, ubiquitous connectivity, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and blockchain among others), social science researchers have recently started investigating different aspects of digital agriculture in relation to farm production systems, value chains and food systems. This has led to a burgeoning but scattered social science body of literature. There is hence lack of overview of how this field of study is developing, and what are established, emerging, and new themes and topics. This is where this article aims to make a contribution, beyond introducing this special issue which presents seventeen articles dealing with social, economic and institutional dynamics of precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming or agriculture 4.0. An exploratory literature review shows that five thematic clusters of extant social science literature on digitalization in agriculture can be identified: 1) Adoption, uses and adaptation of digital technologies on farm; 2) Effects of digitalization on farmer identity, farmer skills, and farm work; 3) Power, ownership, privacy and ethics in digitalizing agricultural production systems and value chains; 4) Digitalization and agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS); and 5) Economics and management of digitalized agricultural production systems and value chains. The main contributions of the special issue articles are mapped against these thematic clusters, revealing new insights on the link between digital agriculture and farm diversity, new economic, business and institutional arrangements both on-farm, in the value chain and food system, and in the innovation system, and emerging ways to ethically govern digital agriculture. Emerging lines of social science enquiry within these thematic clusters are identified and new lines are suggested to create a future research agenda on digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0. Also, four potential new thematic social science clusters are also identified, which so far seem weakly developed: 1) Digital agriculture socio-cyber-physical-ecological systems conceptualizations; 2) Digital agriculture policy processes; 3) Digitally enabled agricultural transition pathways; and 4) Global geography of digital agriculture development. This future research agenda provides ample scope for future interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science on precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0.
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Cites methods from "3D printing of meat."
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors measured the viscoelastic and physicochemical properties of ostrich-meat emulsions with various proportions of gum powder in terms of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), locust bean gum (LBG) and xanthan gum (XAN) and other ingredients such as sodium chloride, sodium tripolyphosphate, linseed oil and ice.
Abstract: Minced-ostrich meat was blended and chopped with various proportions of gum powder in terms of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), locust bean gum (LBG) and xanthan gum (XAN) and other ingredients such as sodium chloride, sodium tripolyphosphate, linseed oil and ice. The mixed batters were then pressurized at 600 MPa and 50 °C for 40 min. Subsequently, their viscoelastic and physicochemical properties were assessed in terms of their dynamic oscillatory moduli, their resultant creep behavior, water-holding capacity and electrophoretic profiles. The results showed that the addition of individual gums and composite gum mixtures influenced both viscoelastic behavior and water-holding capacity of resulting pressurized ostrich-meat emulsions. The most elastic system (greatest G′ or smallest J0 with 4.21 × 10− 5 1/Pa) was the meat emulsion with 1% LBG added, while the least were those formed by adding 1% XAN or 0.5% XAN plus 0.5% CMC (J0 with 10 × 10− 5 and 20.3 × 10− 5 1/Pa, respectively). Subsequent electrophoritic profiles and the measurement of the water-holding capacity of the materials suggested an evidence of ionic interaction between the basic ostrich-meat protein matrix and XAN or XAN plus CMC. Industrial relevance Ostrich meat emulsions containing composite gums were set by combined pressure and temperature. Subsequently, the pressurized gels were characterized by dynamic oscillatory, creep and other physicochemical measurements. In particular, the viscoelastic measuring system is a promising tool for ensuring quality of food biopolymers. Therefore, this methodology is relevant in the area of controlling quality or developing new products where difficulty exists in solubilising the samples.
10 citations
TL;DR: The viability of a fibrinogen-thrombin system to bind fresh deboned hams for incorporation in the salting and ripening processes, to produce cured ham, was studied and two structures were found in the binding area of restructured meat.
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TL;DR: In this article, various processing methods were investigated for the production of milk and porcine blood plasma co-precipitates, and the recovery of protein in precipitates was measured and the following method was selected accordingly for further studies.
Abstract: Various processing methods were investigated for the production of milk and porcine blood plasma co-precipitates. Factors considered included pH and temperature treatments as well as the ratio of milk to plasma proteins in mixtures of the raw materials. The recovery of protein in precipitates was measured and the following method was selected accordingly for further studies: pH adjustment of skim milk and blood plasma mixtures to pH 9.5, heating to 70° C, readjustment of pH to 9.5, holding for 3 min, cooling to 68°C, pH adjustment to 3–5, holding for 5 min, cooling to ambient temperature and final pH adjustment to 4.7. Two co-precipitates (70/30 M/P and 30/70 M/P) were prepared from a 70:30 and a 30:70 mixture of skim milk (M) and blood plasma (P). Some of the functional properties of these preparations were measured and compared with those of total milk protein (TMP) and blood plasma precipitate (P) prepared by the same procedure as well as acid-precipitated casein. The protein contents of preparations freeze-dried at pH 7.0 varied between 91.5 and 92.3% and those freeze-dried at pH 4.7 varied between 93.1 and 96.0%. The solubility profile and emulsifying capacity of the 70/30 M/P compared favourably with those of caseinate and TMP. The solubilities of 30/70 M/P and 100% P were, however, poor. The viscosity of solutions of 70/30 M/P was considerably higher than those of caseinate and TMP solutions. Water adsorption isotherms of protein preparations were constructed and are presented in graphical form. Precipitates freeze-dried at pH 7.0 adsorbed more moisture than the same preparations freeze-dried at pH 4.7. These differences were especially evident a water activities >0.8.
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Abstract: To investigate the influence of konjac gum and guar gum combination on the quality of pork jerky, the sensory characteristic, colour, texture, water activity, water content and pH of the jerky were evaluated. Results showed that five different treatments got higher sensory scores and the group contained 0.24% konjac glucomannan/0.16% guar gum scored the highest. The colour and texture of the jerky were improved at different levels with addition of hydrocolloids and the group of 0.24% konjac glucomannan/0.16% guar gum achieved the best. The addition of hydrocolloids reduced the water activity and increased the water content of the jerky(p0.05) remarkably. The group contained 0.24% konjac glucomannan/0.16% guar gum had the lowest water activity and the group with 0.4% konjac glucomannan had the highest water content. The hydrocolloids increased the pH of the jerky to some extent. The pH increased as the proportion of konjac glucomannan in hydrocolloids amplified. In conclusion, the addition of hydrocolloids can improve the sensory quality, structure characteristics and storage stability of the jerky. The combination of 0.24 % konjac gum and 0.16 % guar gum was beneficial for comprehensive quality of the jerky.
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TL;DR: In this paper, carrageenan and locust bean gum in an appropriate proportion can ameliorate the texture property of comminuted pork by adding 1.6% carrageENan and 024% locust beans gum, and the obtained pork showed the best texture property.
Abstract: Hydrocolloids are a food additive used to improve the quality of meat productsCarrageenan,locust bean gum and their combination were added during comminuted pork processingThe changes of colour,texture and water activity were measured to determine their effects on quality of comminuted porkResults showed that carrageenan and locust bean gum in an appropriate proportion can ameliorate the texture property of comminuted porkBy addition of 016% carrageenan and 024% locust bean gum,the obtained pork showed the best texture property,with hardness value,chewiness value and water loss rate being of 52120±1540,2700±1040 and 0040±0002,respectively
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