The Great Foodini

Back to the Future (1985)

While it's not the instant gratification we all dreamed about for our future, as shown in 80's movie "Back to the Future" (Generation Z, look it up it's a classic), Natural Machines is developing the first commercial 3D food printers called the Foodini. The Foodini claims it will do for food printing what the microwave ovens did for quick, ready to eat meals. As a plus the company claims that it will promote healthy eating as the operator uses fresh ingredients to print the food.

Keep in mind, the Foodini is not a full scale “food replicator” with which one pushes a button and a fully cooked steak or pizza is produced. Some preparation is required to mix and sometimes cook the ingredients that are placed in food capsules and then printed out in accordance to a pre-programmed recipe. Sometimes the printed food will have to be cooked afterwards as well. In many ways the Foodini is a food presenter, printing out a meal in appealing patterns. The meals that the Foodini has produced in testing includes ravioli, pizza, burgers, crackers, and cookies. Thus the meals can either be sweet or savory.

Natural Machines is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $100,000 it says it needs to get the Foodini to market. For those contributing to the campaign, the first Foodinis will cost about $999 according to Tech Crunch. Later the food printer will retail for $1,200. The shipping date for the first Foodini is estimated to be in January, 2015.

Natural Machines is also working with retailers to market pre-made food capsules for those who don’t want to be bothered with the drudgery of mixing their own. It is also looking to the restaurant market as well as the consumer market for its Foodini food printers.

Recent Updates:
As of April 9th, the Foodini will now ship with a built-in scanner. You can scan any object and replicate it's shape digitally with your Foodini and create an endless array of creative presentations. 

As of this posting, Foodini has less than 48 hours to go and still needs a little over $27,000 left to meet it's $100,000 goal. With Kickstarter, it's an all or nothing campaign, so backers who want to see the Foodini come to fruition, will need to rally some support behind them in the next 43 hours!