3D Printing of Food for People with Swallowing Difficulties

Abstract

Dysphagia affects many people worldwide. Modifying foods to standard consistencies, and manual design and assembly of foods for the daily requirements of people with dysphagia is challenging. People with dysphagia may develop a dislike for pureed foods due to the unattractiveness of the appearance of the foods, the lack of variety in daily meals, and the diluted taste of meals. Three-dimensional (3D) food printing is emerging as a method for making foods for people with special mealtime needs. Very few efforts have been made to apply 3D food printing to improving the lives of people with special mealtime needs such as those with dysphagia. This paper presents the design and 3D printing of visually appetizing pureed foods for people with dysphagia with high consistency and repeatability. A tuna fish involving pureed tuna (protein), pureed pumpkin (fruit), and pureed beetroot (vegetable) is designed and then 3D printed. The steps involved in the design of tuna fish, preparation of purees, and printing of tuna fish are described. The obtained results are presented, and the findings of this research work are discussed.

Review Informing the Design of 3D Food Printing for People with Swallowing Disorders: Constructive, Conceptual, and Empirical Problems

“…In total, the search methods yielded 16 articles for inclusion in the review that related both to 3D food printing and also referred to applications for people with dysphagia or swallowing disorders [8,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31]. Data were extracted from the included articles as follows: first author, year, type of paper, aims and contribution, and results relevant to swallowing disorders and texture-modified foods.…”

“…However, recent reviews of the 3D food printing literature draw heavily upon non-peer-reviewed promotional industry material, websites, forums, short conference abstracts, and book chapters [e.g., 12,13,15,16,27]. Despite numerous claims that 3D printed food will be a solution for people with swallowing disorders [see 27], we found very few original research reports on foods printed [28,24,25] and no scientific evidence that 3D printed foods had yet been shown to improve mealtimes or nutrition for people with swallowing disorders (see Table 1 for relevant quotes). The multidisciplinary nature of research in 3D food printing to date is evident in multidiscipline authorship teams.…”

Texture Modification Technologies and Their Opportunities for the Production of Dysphagia Foods: A Review

“…However, very few studies have been made to utilize 3D food printing to produce special foods for people with dysphagia. Among the few available works, Kouzani et al (2017) reported that 3D printing reduced the design and fabrication time, improved the consistency and repeatability of 3D printed tuna fish (consisting of tuna, pureed pumpkin and pureed beetroot), and enhanced the sensory characteristics of such a purée food for dysphagic patients.…”

“…Food texture modification has routinely been conducted to enhance the quality and safety of foods. Foods containing liquids can, for example, be thickened by increasing their viscosity to prevent aspiration; this in turn allows a higher amount of food intake for dysphagic patients (Kouzani et al., ). Recently, alternative technologies, including those involving the use of high‐pressure, hydrodynamic pressure, pulsed electric field (PEF), plasma, ultrasound, and irradiation, have been applied to modify the texture (for example, hardness, adhesiveness, cohesiveness), sensory characteristics (aroma and flavor), and to maintain the nutritional value and extend the shelf life of an array of food materials (Jin, Yu, & Gurtler, ; Yoshioka, Yamamoto, Matsushima, Hachisuka, & Ikeuchi, ).…”

Study on 3D printing of orange concentrate and material characteristics

“…By appropriate selection of nutritional supplements 3DP provides a way to produce innovative consumer products (Kim, Jarrod, Adam, & Sam, 2015;Zampollo, Kniffin, Wansink, & Shimizu, 2012). Kouzani et al 2017 combined restructured tuna fish, pumpkin, and beetroot then successfully 3D printed to attractive design for people suffering from dysphagia (Kouzani et al, 2017). FLM can be used to design foods required consistencies for the daily consumption for people with special requirement.…”