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2025 AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo.

Edible Applications Technology

Soft Matter and Complex Lipid Structures

Enhancing 3D Food Printing: A rheological study of sugar icing for optimized printability

Monday, April 28, 2025
4:15 PM – 4:35 PM PST
Room: A106
Abstract:
3D printing of food is an emerging manufacturing technique that has created new opportunities for advancements in personalized nutrition, texture, and taste. An understanding of rheology is crucial for optimizing print quality in food printing, especially with the extrusion-based direct ink writing (DIW) technique. However, much of the current research on food 3D printing focuses on experimentally testing new material compositions and printing methods without a thorough understanding of food rheology and mechanics. To address these research gaps, we use a common commercial emulsion-based food material – sugar icing – to study its rheology and corresponding effect on printing. We conducted various rheological experiments, including examining dynamic moduli and thixotropy to find that sugar icing exhibited time-dependent yield stress. We then correlated the rheological properties with printing parameters such as maximum print height to predict failure modes like slumping and buckling. Ultimately, gaining a deeper understanding of the mechanics involved will offer insights into innovative ways to control the taste, texture, and nutrition of food materials through 3D printing.