3D-printed meals: 14-ingredient meal cooked by lasers sets new culinary milestone

Lasers are now cooking dinner, one precisely targeted burst at a time.

Researchers have successfully 3D-printed and laser-cooked a complete 14-ingredient, three-course meal using what they call multi-wavelength laser cooking. The breakthrough addresses one of the biggest hurdles in 3D food printing: creating textures that actually resemble real food rather than paste.

Jonathan David Blutinger, who led the research while at Columbia University, and his team used blue, near-infrared, and mid-infrared lasers to cook Graham cracker dough with unprecedented precision. Unlike ovens that spread heat unevenly, the lasers delivered exact bursts of energy at shallow depths, allowing engineers to program specific levels of chewiness and firmness into each layer.

"We found that modulating the frequency of laser exposure across printed layers allows for precise control over elasticity and chewiness throughout the printed product," the team explained.

The technology could revolutionize personalized nutrition and medical diets. As Blutinger puts it: "Food is something that we all interact with and personalize on a daily basis. It seems only natural to infuse software into our cooking to make meal creation more customizable."