One in five people over the age of 50 eat gelatinous food

Apr 14, 2014 07:31 GMT  ·  By

As far as 3D printed food goes, we've seen little besides a printer that can make a few fast food recipes on demand, and nothing more. Now, though, we've been informed that the concept could sell best to the elderly.

The main problem with using 3D printers for making food is that you can't exactly 3D print loafs of bread or real vegetables, or even meat.

Cooking itself consist of taking (with or without reasonable applications of force) whatever nature offers, and changing and combining those ingredients.

3D printers, FDM/FFF models anyway (fused deposition modeling) can only layer things on top of one another via an extruder.

So while it's possible to create a pizza by layering the dough, cheese and meat strips one after another, more complex things like roast and cakes aren't possible. At least not yet.

But there is one segment of potential customers where simplicity isn't looked upon with scorn. Indeed, it is expected.

We are talking about the elderly, the people over the age of fifty who have trouble eating anything besides gelatinous food, or what is commonly known as “goop.”

One in five people over the age of 50 suffers from dysphagia, a condition that renders the larynx unable to close properly while swallowing.

This causes people to choke on their food, because it redirects it to the lungs. Even if it doesn't kill the ones suffering from the problem, dysphagia can lead to pneumonia and renal failure, which are just slower types of death ultimately.

Liquefied food is a way to counteract these problems, which is why it's so common in nursing homes, and why German company Biozoon Food Innovations thinks 3D printing can be a blessing in that field.

After all, porridge and gelatinous nourishments are quite common in nursing homes, and 3D printing technology can easily be adapted to make such things.

One thing led to another, and the EU-funded PERFORMANCE project was started, led by Matthias Kuck, the chief executive officer of Biozoon Food Innovations.

Pureeing and straining cooked items are the methods used right now to render food safely edible for those suffering from dysphagia. They're time consuming though, and chefs/scientists can't exactly make enough for everyone.

3D food printers will remove these problems and even give some shape back to foods, reducing some of the frustration that the elderly could feel when seeing fellow residents eating vegetables and chicken fillets.