A Look at the Rapidly Expanding World of 3-D Printed Food

If flight attendants could print a customized meal to a flyer’s specifications that would beat the heck out of those terrible little warmed up trays. That is the basis of a concept put together by a group of students in India. Passengers could order a wide variety of foods from a touch screen at their seat. They could be freshly made (or at least freshly printed) in the back—with no real need for additional staff.

Using a reverse 3-D printing process often called 3-D subtraction, engineers working with Beam Suntory, the makers of the reigning World's Best Whiskey, created ice in the shapes of architectural landmarks, animals, astronauts and more.

Nothing says Easter like chocolate eggs. And nothing says "Creepy Easter" like a chocolate egg sculpted to look exactly like your face. In order to pull off the fully customized eggs, the mad scientists from Bompas and Parr, first scan your face and 3-D print it in nylon, which is then wrapped around a plastic mold. From there, they line the molds in chocolate and a few hours later a fully formed chocolate face is ready to terrify children everywhere.

Dutch food engineer Chloé Rutzerveld uses 3-D printing technology to create a hard-to-explain snack called Edible Growth. She prints a flaky shell filled with agar—a flavorless gelatinous substance—which nourishes a mixture of seeds and spores. After just a couple of days, those seeds and spores sprout into greens and mushrooms. What you’re left with, really, is a perfect, tiny bite of fresh salad.