Dutch concept designer Chloé Rutzerveld has come up with a novel way to produce healthy food using a high-tech and apparently highly sustainable process involving 3D printing.
By embedding seeds, yeast, spores and an edible soil material inside a 3D-printed case, Rutzerveld has created a product that she claims is fresh and more nutrient-rich than anything currently made using conventional methods.
The result, part of a project called Edible Growth, is a pastry snack product that grows its own filling of mushrooms and sprouts during the course of 3-5 days.
In the video below, Rutzerveld explains: “The Edible Growth Project is about creating a fully edible ecosystem with living organisms in which the base gets printed by a 3D-printer and gradually develops towards a fully-fledged dish.”
She adds: “It shows that high-tech food doesn't have to be unhealthy or unnatural, but that it can actually have a lot of advantages.”
The implications for the food chain are clear: with consumers becoming increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of food production and distribution, this kind of innovation could see various stages in that supply chain removed or at least shortened.
“With Edible Growth a lot of unnecessary stages of the food chain disappear with as result a reduction of food waste, food miles and CO2 emission,” Rutzerveld continues. “At the same time the consumer will become more involved and conscious about the food they eat.”
Watch the video below for more information about the project.
