Mar 6, 2019 | By Thomas
Swedish municipalities are planning to serve 3D printed food at care homes for the elderly. The municipalities hope to stimulate residents' appetites by making the 3D printed food look like the real thing.
"When you find it hard to chew and swallow, the food that exists today doesn't look very appetising," explained Richard Asplund, head of the catering department at Halmstad municipality on the west coast.
"So the idea is to make something more aesthetic to look at, to make it look good to eat by recreating the original form of the food."
Halmstad municipality on the west coast is planning to use 3D printers to take purified broccoli and chicken, which is today served in dull circular or square slabs thickened with egg and starch, and then reshape it into florets and drumsticks.
"It will look like a chicken leg, but you could compare the consistency to panna cotta," Asplund said.
Evelina Höglund, the researcher coordinating the project at the state innovation body Rise, said the issue is a daily battle.
"It's a big problem that people who get consistency adapted food get malnourished because they eat too little," she told Telegraph.
Around 8 per cent of adults in Sweden have difficulties chewing or swallowing.
Rise is working with the municipalities, the food providers Findus and Solina, the 3D printing companies Cellink and Addema, and researchers at Lund University and the University of Kristianstad.
The first challenge, according to Ms Höglund, was to adapt 3D printers designed for the medical technology industry so that they are able to print hygienically and in sufficient quantities.
Asplund, a former head chef at the luxury Falkenbergs Strandbad hotel, conceded that 3D-printed chicken did not sound particularly delicious.
"No, it isn't. But it's better than what they have today."
The project is currently in the pre-study phase. First trial meals are expected to be served up at care homes in Halmstad and Helsingborg in southern Sweden by the end of this year. Another part of the project will be developing recipes adapted to individuals, taking into account dietary requirements or food preferences.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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Doesn't experimenting on the elderly break a lot of laws?
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