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Cambridge Company Unveils 3D Printed "Fruit"

An anonymous reader writes "A Cambridge England company called Dovetailed has created the world's first 3D printed 'fruit'. They use a process of spherification to create little balls of fruit puree, which they then print to form the shape of the given fruit. Images here where you can see a 3D printed raspberry. Vaiva Kalnikait, creative director and founder of Dovetailed, said: 'We have been thinking of making this for a while. It’s such an exciting time for us as an innovation lab. Our 3D fruit printer will open up new possibilities not only to professional chefs but also to our home kitchens – allowing us to enhance and expand our dining experiences. We have re-invented the concept of fresh fruit on demand.'"

59 comments

  1. Fresh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As in... fresh out of the printhead?

    1. Re:Fresh? by click2005 · · Score: 2

      World's first?? Theres a Kickstarter project for a 3D Printer that prints any puree not just fruit.

      https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...

      --
      I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
  2. Tell me again when they do it with bacon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Bacon flavored fruit yes?

    1. Re:Tell me again when they do it with bacon by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      Easy.

  3. Is this new? by StripedCow · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have been 3d-printing whipped cream for decades, using a spray cream can.

    --
    If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
    1. Re:Is this new? by peragrin · · Score: 1

      Yes but yours isn't being done with a computer that makes worthy of a dozen new patents alone. You can make it two dozen if you replace computer with mobile device and resubmit.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    2. Re:Is this new? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually "invented" this in the early 1980s, although not using 3-D printing, which is overkill (use a mold). I like fruit, but I hate dealing with the pits (a.k.a., "stones"). My idea was to make a puree, mold it with some small amount of edible binder, and coat it with a suitable material. My colleagues at the labs laughed, but who's laughing now! But, seriously, just use a mold.

    3. Re:Is this new? by GNious · · Score: 1

      could be cool project - computer-controlled robot-arm 3D-printing whipped cream using regular spray cream.

  4. ewww by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I could make a better raspberry from puree by hand. that looks like a sunken raspberry-molded jello

    1. Re:ewww by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They pick the fruit, process it and shove it into containers so it can be printed into fruit shapes.. much easier than just eating fruit.

    2. Re:ewww by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I've been growing better raspberries for many years from a small bush.

    3. Re:ewww by Chocolate+Teapot · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's brilliant! I can't wait to get some 3D printed fruit so I can make a purée.

      --
      Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
    4. Re:ewww by Rhaban · · Score: 1

      it looks nothing like a raspberry, and a raspberry should be the easiest fruit to reconstitute from little spheres. I’d like to see a 3d-printed apple or banana using this process.

    5. Re:ewww by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is glorified juice-filled candy. Whole fruit has all that fiber and other stuff good for someone.

    6. Re:ewww by dreamchaser · · Score: 2

      Presumably the purees can be stored and used in places like Antarctic bases or even in space. Sounds like a good application to me.

    7. Re:ewww by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I've been growing better raspberries for many years from a small bush.

      That solar powered 3D printer in your back yard is so slow!

    8. Re:ewww by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      You, sir, win two Internets.

      Funniest 3D-printer related joke so far.

    9. Re:ewww by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, they're called JAMS and require all the technology of a Mason jar, sugar and boiling water...

    10. Re:ewww by Osgeld · · Score: 1

      I hear its really difficult to keep items frozen in the Antarctic

    11. Re:ewww by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      It's often overlooked with fat people that fruit is actually mostly bad for you. It mostly just sugar and water, stuff you need the least of (because you get this anyway from everything else). The only good thing in it is fibre, which gets broken down in a puree. So Fruit Juice/Puree and its products are effectively just sugar. A glass of juice is as bad as a glass of Coke, actually worse because Coke doesn't fool you into thinking it's healthy for you. You may as well just eat candy.

    12. Re:ewww by Raenex · · Score: 1

      The only good thing in it is fibre, which gets broken down in a puree.

      Vitamin C. And fiber isn't "broken down" in a puree unless it is specifically removed (which is why you should avoid juicers). So while fruits are high in sugar and you shouldn't go crazy on them, whole fruits are a healthy part of your diet.

    13. Re:ewww by wwphx · · Score: 1

      I read your sig as Modest doubt is called the bacon of the wise. I like my version better, though I'm not sure what it means.

      --
      When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
    14. Re:ewww by dreamchaser · · Score: 1

      I was thinking more about the ability to create a variety of food items from raw materials.

  5. Yes, but... by necro81 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, but is the 3D-printer driven using a Raspberry Pi?

    1. Re:Yes, but... by Chocolate+Teapot · · Score: 2

      Nope! Apple got there first and will sue the pass off of any other fruit-based companies who infringe.

      --
      Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
    2. Re:Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      None of this matters until we get the results seen in Weird Science. Now THAT I would pay for.

    3. Re:Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Beatles were there first and Apple had to pay handsomely.

    4. Re:Yes, but... by Xel · · Score: 1

      So Raspberry Pi is the new Beowulf cluster around here, huh? Plus ça change...

      --
      "Eagles may soar, but weasels dont get sucked into jet engines."
  6. This is new..? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Rather strange that people think crapping out fruit puree from a extruder in various shapes is something new when I stopped eating fruit roll-ups decades ago.

    1. Re:This is new..? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      Let's combine this kind of 3D printer with fruit roll-ups.

  7. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    3D printing has really gone down the drain quickly. *This* is the amazing new future ???

    Can we 3D print a gun down my throat already?

  8. "printed" and "fruit" by oic0 · · Score: 2

    This is no closer to 3d printed fruit than the jello fruit stuff that's been served since the invention of jello.

    1. Re:"printed" and "fruit" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      LUDDITE! BURN HIM! He who refuses to suck the cock of 3D printing and Bre Pettis must be SHUNNED and modded down IMMEDIATELY!

      CALLING ALL TECHNO-OPTIMIST FUTURISTS TO THREAD #127217!!!

      We have an unbeliever !!! Mod down!!!

    2. Re:"printed" and "fruit" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't mod ME down, the parent! Duh!!

    3. Re:"printed" and "fruit" by Arker · · Score: 2

      Here's how it works. You take the fruit. You chop it up real fine, put it through the printer and you get a fruit!

      So much better than that nasty fruit you started with. Revolutionary! WE HAVE INVENTED FRUIT THIS DAY!!!!

      --
      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
      Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
    4. Re:"printed" and "fruit" by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      I think you got modded down for mentioning Bre Pettis.

    5. Re:"printed" and "fruit" by LeadSongDog · · Score: 1

      You take the fruit. You chop it up real fine, put it through the printer and you get a fruit!

      Yum, looks like mango, tastes and smells like durian! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

      --
      Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.
  9. I want chocolate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fruit is way to healthy. Why not print chocolate. Heating it up a bit should make it flexible enough to extrude and sticky enough to hold and it hardens when it gets cold so structures shouldn't collaps. Plus it would be cheap, easy to buy and reusable.

    1. Re:I want chocolate by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 1

      Fruit is way to healthy. Why not print chocolate. Heating it up a bit should make it flexible enough to extrude and sticky enough to hold and it hardens when it gets cold so structures shouldn't collaps. Plus it would be cheap, easy to buy and reusable.

      Old news:

      http://www.reprapcentral.com/v...

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    2. Re:I want chocolate by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      Chocolate comes from cocoa, which is a tree. That makes it a plant. Chocolate is salad.

      Therefore, chocolate is also way too healthy.

    3. Re:I want chocolate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      100% pure cocoa is indeed very healthy. The problems are that a) just like anything, it can be bad to eat too much and b) most people don't like it anyway until you add a bunch of sugar.

  10. Finally! by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 1

    Finally a "slime mold" can be made by putting slime into a mold.

    --
    Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
  11. Whole new meaning to "Printer Jam" by Chocolate+Teapot · · Score: 1

    Boom tish!

    --
    Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
    1. Re:Whole new meaning to "Printer Jam" by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      I am so going to 3D-print a radar with this.

  12. unhealthy by harvey+the+nerd · · Score: 1

    The ultimate processed food, printed to resemble the real thing. Many molecules of unprocessed, grown fruits and vegetables are quite different. These properties are as yet underappreciated as essential nutrients. 3D printing is a gee whiz menace from faster foods.

    I knew a precocious 16 y.o. young girl in a great college, who later married a gourmet chef that made faux foods to delight her taste buds. She died before age 50 with chronic illness that I think reflects modern [lack of] nutrition.

    1. Re:unhealthy by Herder+Of+Code · · Score: 1

      Anecdotal evidence for the win

    2. Re:unhealthy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But anecdotal 3D printing stories are the sign of the utopian post-scarcity singularity future, right?

  13. Printed fruit != fruit by Lexor · · Score: 1

    Some things, like electricity and 3D printers and of course money doesn't, but, umm, fruit already "grows on trees."

    --
    Regards, Lex
  14. If this is 3D printed fruit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If this is 3D printed fruit, wait until they hear about 3D printed bears

  15. umm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    3D printed raspberry?! ..more like 3D printed glob of fish roe.

  16. Ding-ding-ding! Give that man a... some gelatine. by denzacar · · Score: 1

    From TFA:

    In this process, the liquid or puree from the fruit is mixed with a very small amount of a substance called sodium alginate, then quickly placed into a bowl of soluble calcium salt. At this point the liquid or puree forms tiny spheres, almost like caviar, in which a thin skin holds the shape of the liquid inside.
    Apple Juice After Spherification

    Apple Juice After Spherification

    What the 3D printer does is combine these little spheres of flavor with other spheres of the same or varying flavor, to form customized âfruitsâ(TM), which can taste and look however the the user desires.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

    As a food additive, sodium alginate is used especially in the production of gel-like foods. For example, bakers' "Chellies" are often gelled alginate "jam." Also, the pimento stuffing in prepared cocktail olives is usually injected as a slurry at the same time that the stone is ejected; the slurry is subsequently set by immersing the olive in a solution of a calcium salt, which causes rapid gelation by electrostatic cross-linking. [citation needed] A similar process can be used to make "chunks" of everything from cat food through "reformed" ham or fish to "fruit" pieces for pies. It has the E-number 401.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  17. Surely if you want to eat some raspberries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a lot quicker and cheaper to go out and buy a tub of rasberries than to print something raspberry shaped from a generic fruit puree that won't taste like a raspberry unless it's made from raspberry puree in which case you've used time and energy to mash something up and then spent time and energy to unmash it back to a vague resemblance to what you mashed up in the first place?

    I think with my idea that I've re-reinvented the concept of fresh fruit on demand.

  18. For the naysayers by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Look, this may not be the 'best thing since sliced bread' and seem a bit silly, but most technology advances are incremental. Sure, they still have a long way to go, but if you dont get your ass out on the road you will never get there.

    That said, sure this is news, but not front page material.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  19. They've not heard of Trees? by jaeztheangel · · Score: 0

    "We have re-invented the concept of fresh fruit on demand."

  20. Just what I've always wanted! by pla · · Score: 1

    Now I can have all the joy of eating fruit, without needing to actually eat a fruit!

    Wait, what?

    / Yo dawg, I heard you like fruit...

  21. Sounds more like candy by Powercntrl · · Score: 1

    I'm not even close to being a tree-hugging, organic-loving, Whole Foods-shopping-at hipster, but honestly, don't we already have enough processed frankenfoods? What is wrong with just having some actual raspberries, strawberries, blueberries or whatever kind of berry they're faking? Last I checked, the candy isle at Walmart is already overflowing with sickeningly over-sweetened, artificially flavored fake fruit. They figured out how to print what essentially is Gushers candy with a 3D printer.

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  22. "fresh" vs "edible" by holophrastic · · Score: 1

    I'd love a definition of fresh that doesn't allow for six months of warehousing before I eat it, thank you very much.

  23. Food replicator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Food replicator from StarTrek is coming...