Sushi Singularity
3D printers offer a vision and taste of future food—but will consumers embrace it?
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Is this a glimpse of the future of food? Japanese scientists and companies are developing 3D food printers to produce sushi, wagyu, and a host of other foods. They say the technology holds great promise for personalizing food to meet nutritional needs, reducing food waste, and even providing something to eat during extended space travel. “I think there’s huge potential. Food itself will probably change,” said Yamagata University’s Hidemitsu Furukawa.
The soft and wet materials-engineering scientist is developing a 3D food printer dubbed the Laser Cook that heats and hardens liquid food poured into a mold. He envisions the equipment being used in convenience stores within the next 10 years to prepare custom-designed food for consumers. He is even in initial discussions with Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd., the owner of the 7-Eleven chain, about doing just that.
As Japan’s population ages, the technology could also prove useful for feeding elderly people with specific nutritional needs or providing softer food for those who have trouble chewing and swallowing, Furukawa and other developers have noted.
The sushi and wagyu projects are still works in progress, and there are obvious questions about how receptive consumers will be to food that may seem industrial or artificially engineered. But already, 3D food printers are being used at universities, restaurants, and food companies in Japan and around the world. Developers predict they will become fixtures in household kitchens within a generation.
“We’re trying to create a competitive food culture for the 21st century,” observed Ryosuke Sakaki, who founded Open Meals, a venture backed by ad agency Dentsu Inc., which is pursuing seven projects that involve 3D food printers, including some that essentially squeeze sushi and wagashi (Japanese confections) out a nozzle.
Sakaki remarked that getting the taste and texture right have been huge challenges, and he has enlisted the help of sushi chefs in this regard. But he acknowledges that the results will never measure up to the sushi we are used to. “We’ll never be able to match that,” he admitted, adding that the fish or seafood portion of printed sushi may be crispier and may be placed on top of regular pats of rice shaped by a machine. “We’ll need to think of it as a new kind of sushi experience,” he concluded.
Still, Sakaki has high hopes. By year-end, Open Meals plans to hold an event at which printed sushi and wagashi can be eaten and the technology demonstrated. If it is well received, he hopes to open a restaurant serving the food in the not-too-distant future. The name? Sushi Singularity.
Mini Food Factories
These Japanese ventures aim to join a number of startups from Europe, the United States, and China that have taken the lead in this nascent business.
Food printers, which emerged 10–12 years ago, work in a variety of ways. The dispensing function operates like that of 3D printers with which we may be most accustomed. But, whereas the latter create plastic shapes, the function here causes capsules of paste-like or liquid food to be squeezed through a nozzle to produce a three-dimensional shape that can be eaten or baked. The method lends itself to creating cookies, cakes, chocolates, and other confection. Some dessert shops have already started to display them.
But many machines can also handle mashed vegetables and even minced meat. The Foodini, a 3D food printer designed by Barcelona-based Natural Machines, comes equipped with capsules that users can fill with almost any sort of food, as long as it’s relatively soft.
The technology is not as foreign or far-out as it might sound, Chief Executive Officer Emilio Sepulveda told The ACCJ Journal. And it is already widely used in food processing plants. “These printers use the same processes and same technology that major food brands use to create pasta or meat patties,” he explained. “It’s basically 3D printing, but no one calls it that.”
Tackling Food Waste
The Laser Cook printer being developed by Yamagata University’s Furukawa operates differently. It combines water with dehydrated, powdered food, which is poured into a vessel and then zapped with a laser to cook or harden it.
In this way, 3D printers can help reduce food waste, Furukawa and others have said. Instead of discarding food that isn’t sold at the supermarket—or the “ugly” vegetables that don’t even get to the store, because they’re not the ideal shape—it can be turned into powder and saved for future use. “If we think differently … and convert food into powder, it becomes an on-demand item and there’s little waste,” Furukawa explained.
There’s also potential here for use in space, he added. Transporting lightweight powder is easy. It doesn’t require refrigeration and it can last several years. “So, when we go to Mars—a journey that could take two or three years—this kind of food could be used. You can make it just by adding water.”
The technology is something the Japanese government is getting behind as well. One goal of the Cabinet Office’s Moonshot Program is to reduce food waste, and some developers, including Furukawa, are receiving government research funding.
Personalized Nutrition
Another benefit, scientists and developers say, is that ingredients can be customized to meet individual nutritional needs. That might include vitamins and other supplements.
It could be particularly helpful, in Japan and other developed nations, for the growing ranks of elderly people, who may not get enough nutrition as their stomachs and appetites shrink. Producing softer food can also help elderly people who have dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, a common problem for those with Parkinson’s disease. “With this technology, you can make dense nutrition,” Furukawa explained.
Athletes and soldiers could also benefit from specially designed food. Perhaps during disasters, the technology could also be used to feed people who lack provisions, developers say.
“The opportunity and potential to use this in hospital settings, in homes for the elderly, where consumers need very specific nutrients, and where nutrients must be provided at specific times—that’s a huge market,” said Jennifer Perez, a venture capitalist at the $20 million Future Food Fund, established by online food delivery service Oisix ra daichi Inc., which invests in food-technology ventures.
So far, the fund hasn’t invested in any 3D food printing companies, but Perez sees great potential. “This technology is a dream of the future, but it’s starting to happen right now,” she added.
Synthetic Wagyu
Japan is on the cutting edge in one particular area: developing “structured” synthetic meat that contains ripples of fat, blood, and sinew, just like the steaks we might buy at the supermarket.
While food printers have been able to process fresh and synthetic ground meat for some time, Osaka University bioengineer Michiya Matsusaki is spearheading research and working with Shimadzu Corporation to develop chunks of synthetic, or cultured, wagyu, Japan’s famous marbled beef.
The complicated process involves injecting stem cells from fresh meat into a gelatinous bath. The cells are then exposed to stimulating chemicals to differentiate them. Some become tiny muscle fibers just 500-microns wide, while others become tissue, such as fat and blood vessels.
The muscle fibers are then assembled to create tiny pieces of meat—72 strands, for example, create a tidbit just 5 millimeters x 5 millimeters x 1.5 centimeters. Matsusaki has not been able to do a taste test yet, because he hasn’t received clearance from the university’s ethics committee. But his team aims to complete the project for demonstration at World Expo 2025 in Osaka, where they hope to offer visitors tiny edible pieces of such printed wagyu.
Matsusaki said he’s received inquiries about his research from a number of companies around the world. “We’re getting lots of interest from Singapore, Dubai, and the United States,” he shared. “Companies that make synthetic meat don’t have the technique to make this shape.”
Key reasons for the project include concern about the environment and the possibility that the world will face a shortage of meat in the future, making it difficult to feed the growing population, Matsusaki explained. Increasing the number of cattle—and expanding grazing land to meet their needs—would lead to the destruction of more forests. And cows produce a lot of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The equipment being developed with Shimadzu would allow consumers to manipulate the percentage of fat they want in their meat. “If you had one of these machines in your home, you could decide on the fat content and shape you wanted,” he observed. “Press a button and it would be done the next day. That’s the kind of future we’re trying to create.”
Very Analog
But how does such food taste, and will consumers go for it? Japanese are quite open-minded about robots and other applications of technology, but when it comes to food they have very high standards for quality, texture, taste, and freshness.
Tetsuya Nojiri, CEO of Oishii kenko Inc.—creator of the app that goes by the same name and who is not involved in 3D printer development—said he can see some positives in the technology, particularly for addressing nutritional needs of the elderly. However, he believes it won’t appeal to most Japanese consumers, and that it would take many years to be accepted. “Most people want food that is natural, safe, and tasty,” he stated. “That’s very analog, not digital.”
Aiming to contribute to health and healthcare issues through dietary management is the Oishii kenko app, which won the Empowering Patients Award and People’s Choice Award at last year’s American Chamber of Commerce in Japan Healthcare x Digital competition. The app’s name means “tasty health” and it provides recommendations for nutritionally balanced, delicious meals using artificial intelligence and Big Data.
Nojiri suggested that, if the equipment to make 3D printed foods is fun and easy to use, he can see some consumers using it to make niche products such as chocolates and other confections. He can also see it being put to work in larger-scale settings, such as hospitals and universities. “These printers have potential, but it’s hard to imagine that they would be used to prepare food for the ordinary person,” he added.
Perez of the Future Food Fund feels that more time and research is needed to gauge consumer receptivity. “Consumers are curious but, ultimately, it comes down to: Is the product going to taste good?”
Taste and texture are indeed very difficult, if not impossible, to replicate on a food printer. Chocolate and baked goods are easier on that score, but synthetic meat—or hybrid meat mixed with soy or other plant products—has generally proved disappointing. “It doesn’t really taste like meat yet, so that’s a problem,” Matsusaki remarked.
Price, Speed, Scalability
The 3D printers currently being used have built-in limitations on what they can produce, Sakaki explained. “Food made with certain ingredients will harden and taste good, but [made with] others will not. There are also limitations on how you can design the food to come out. And it takes quite a while to make each piece, so that raises the price.”
Yes, as with any new technology, price is an issue. Natural Machines’ Foodini sells for about ¥800,000 at current exchange rates ($6,000), although the company also offers less expensive subscription plans for set periods of time. The Laser Cook being developed by Furukawa costs roughly ¥1 million (about $7,500). Other machines being developed in Japan, such as the wagyu and sushi printers, do not yet have price tags.
Speed and scalability are other problems, according to Perez. Printing a simple round cake can take seven to 15 minutes, and making just one more complex structure can take 45 minutes to an hour. “When you compare that to what you can do on the standard factory line, it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” she said. “When you look at the logistics, it doesn’t quite work yet.”
On the flip side, once you have a successful product, it’s highly reproducible, Perez pointed out. And that data could be shared with other machines to create the same product on another continent—or in outer space.
Suraj Gujar, principal analyst for disruptive technologies at Meticulous Research in Pune, India, sees 3D printers as remaining a relatively niche product used by bakeries, caterers, hotels, and restaurants—but not the wider public.
The equipment is far too expensive, hefty, and slow to catch on among ordinary consumers, at least for the foreseeable future, he offered. Also, most printers don’t have a cooking feature, so that involves another step, adding more time and work. And some can be tricky to operate, he added.
“The consumer has to be tech savvy, because if you want to print food, it means you have to give a command to a machine. And if you want a customized design, then you have to program that into the computer,” Gujar explained. “If it’s for a cake, I would be happy to have it. But if it’s for daily food, I’m skeptical.”
To counter negative impressions that printers generate “plastic food,” Natural Machines’ Sepulveda said that, most often, fresh ingredients are used with the Foodini, several dozen of which are already being put to work in Japan at food companies, universities, hospitals and restaurants.
To win the trust of consumers in Japan, it’s important to work with established food brands, Sepulveda noted. Natural Machines is working with Hankyu and Dentsu. “Japanese corporates are super open and looking for partnerships that can bring them this extra value that they have not been able to develop on their own,” he added.
And demand in the region is on the rise: Asia has overtaken North America as the Foodini’s top market.
Despite the obstacles, developers say growing consumer awareness and concern about environmental, health, and sustainability issues are making them more receptive to this new technology. “Sustainability is getting more attention,” said Open Meals’s Sakaki, “including concerns about fish catch and resource use. 3D printing is one way to address that, so I think people will be receptive.”
