[Junk Science]

Andrew Purvis investigates whether 3D printers, artificial meat and GM can reduce food’s future environmental footprint

Before the end of the year, if Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University gets his way, the world’s first test-tube burger will be flame-grilled by Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck in Bray and served to a celebrity guest. Meals at this restaurant don’t come cheap, but this one will be the climax of a €250,000 research project – and a milestone in Post’s quest to find new ways of feeding the world, without destroying the planet.

His petri-dish patty will be made from a mixture of fat and cow muscle grown from stem cells in a culture of foetal calf serum (that’s blood plasma without the clotting agents) – a technology trialled in February.  …

Meanwhile, at Cornell University in New York, PhD candidate Jeffrey Lipton has developed a 3D food printer that lays down liquid versions of foods, dot by dot and layer by layer, to build up edible meals. “So far we have printed everything from chocolate, cheese and hummus to scallops, turkey and celery”, he says. At present, the technology uses liquid or melted versions of conventionally produced ingredients, but the aim is to create a range of ‘food inks’ made from hydrocolloids – substances that form gels with water. Homaru Cantu, a chef who has used the printer to make sushi, thinks this could have big implications for sustainability, not least because there would be no prepping of fresh ingredients, and therefore no food waste. …

See the full story here: http://junkscience.com/2012/05/19/will-3d-printers-make-food-sustainable/