Page 51 - FoodFocusThailand No.231 June 2025

SMART PRODUCTION PRODUCTION
SMART

4D Food Printing:

The Future of Food Manufacturing

Technology

4D food printing integrates traditional three-dimensional food printing technology with the dimension of time,
enabling food structures to undergo controlled transformations in response to external stimuli such as heat,
humidity, or light. While 3D printing has achieved significant technological success, several printed food
products still experience spontaneous physical changes over time. Therefore, 4D food printing has been
developed to design food products whose physical appearance, shape, function, and properties can be
intentionally controlled, enhancing diversity and creating a novel sensory experience during consumption.

4D food printing is a type of additive manufacturing molecular structures gradually unfold and form new bonds.
technology. Compared with 3D food printing, 4D food printing Commonly used proteins include soy protein, whey protein,
utilizes specific ingredients that respond to external stimuli and casein, all of which play key roles in gel formation,
such as heat, moisture, or light, allowing food properties to emulsification, and foaming. For example, corn protein in snack
change over time. These ingredients include proteins, natural products can expand when heated in a microwave.
pigments, and flavor compounds, which enable printed foods 2. Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are frequently used as
to transform dynamically—for example, by changing color, thickeners and stabilizers due to their molecular structure,
softening in texture, or bending and folding in controlled which contains numerous hydroxyl groups that are highly
ways. The primary materials used in 4D food printing can be sensitive to water content. The carbohydrate ingredients
categorized into four major groups as follows: include wheat flour, oats, potatoes, cellulose, and pectin, all
1. Protein: Proteins are highly responsive to external of which contribute to forming a gel-stable and maintaining
stimuli, especially heat and moisture. When 4D-printed food food system.
products containing protein are exposed to heat, their

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