One Barcelona-based startup may just revolutionize the food industry. Natural Machines unveiled the Foodini which serves up edible food like pizza and burgers.
Foodini revolutionizes food preparation
This machine allows cooks to place the ingredients in the machine and “print” out the food. Printing out natural ingredients was substantially harder to do than printing out plastics. The company’s co-founder Lynette Kucsma explained to CNN, “It’s the same technology, but with plastics there’s just one melting point, whereas with food it’s different temperatures, consistencies and textures. Also, gravity works a little bit against us, as food doesn’t hold the shape as well as plastic.”
Although printing food is quite the accomplishment, it does come with it’s own set of caveats. Unfortunately the current machine only prints out raw food and preparing it to be cooked. The company plans to launch another printer that will cook the food. Natural Machines will first market the Foodini to kitchen professionals, and later average customers. The starting price of this machine is expected to be $1,300. It will be sold on the internet and in select retail stores.
A focus on fresh foods
The Foodini was designed to simplify the food preparation process and encourage healthier eating. Kucsma added, “We have done tests and everybody liked the food. Take the microwave oven, for example: in the 70s, people were a bit fearful about it, they thought food could be poisoned with radiation or something, but fast forward 30 years, and there’s one in every household. This is real food, with real fresh ingredients; it’s just prepared using a new technology.”
A machine that prints out food to prepare it for cooking is an ambitious project. Whether the Foodini actually catches on with food professionals or not is something that remains to be seen. For now, we can expect Foodini to inspire other similar food prep systems.
