Colored 3D printed nutritious food gels

In recent years, 3D printing has revolutionized food production, particularly in creating customized food gels for people with dysphagia. This technology allows for tailoring both the texture and nutritional content, improving the eating experience for those with swallowing difficulties (Ekonomou et al., 2024). Kristianstad University has embarked on a project to address this challenge, where my role is to ensure consistent and stable coloring in 3D printed food gels.
My topic is the coloring of 3D printed food gels, while taking into account the technological constraints of the gel matrix and the parameters of the 3D printer. Thus, this study aims to investigate and develop methodologies that ensure consistent and stable coloring in 3D printed food gels. The goal is to understand the interaction between food dystuffs and gel matrices used in 3D printing.
To do this, I study the first hypothesis wether the colour stability and accuracy of 3D printed food gels can be significantly influenced by the type and concentration of the dyes used as well as their interaction with other constituents. The second hypothesis is printing parameters such as nozzle temperature and layer thickness, affect color stability and uniformity of gels.
The strategy adopted includes conducting a literature review to identify previous knowledge regarding the coloring of food gels in 3D printing, then the experimental evaluation of different types of food-grade dystuffs and their interactions with gel constituents. If necessary, the print settings can be varied to determine their effect on print quality.
To color 3D printed nutrient gels, preliminary experiments on the solubility of the dystuffs and the optimal dosage were performed. The colouring of the gels, with natural and synthetic pigments, as well as the enrichment with vitamin C and iron to assess the stability of the pigments, were analysed. Finally, the 3D printing of the gels was studied, focusing on the print quality and the effect of vitamins and minerals, before concluding with a discussion and statistical analysis of the textural properties of the gels.