3D Chocolate Printing for Shape and Texture Control

Food 3D printing is expected to become a main stream technology to create foods with different tastes and hardness depending on individual preferences and to solve the problem of food loss problems [1]. In this study, we focus on the 3D printing of chocolate, whose product value is greatly affected by its appearance, entertainment and texture [2]. Although 3D printers of chocolate are gradually appearing in the market, most of them only focus on the modeling of shape, and there are quite few printers that can form chocolate with designed texture. We develop a chocolate 3D printer using two chocolate materials. In addition to the syringe type extruder, we introduce the gear pump type extruder, which has a fine and stable extrusion [3]. We 3d print chocolates with various internal structures using two chocolate materials and evaluate the differences in their textures by equipment measurement and by sensory tests. In addition, the melt-in-mouth feeling and the snappiness, which are important for the texture of chocolate, are investigated. In this presentation, we report the results of texture tests of black chocolate formed by a single syringe type 3D printer.