Analyzing the effects of 3D printing process per se on the microstructure and mechanical properties of cereal food products

3D Food Printing has gaining interest to create food with personalized properties. In order to customize the texture it is necessary to explore whether and how 3D printing process per se has consequences on the mechanical features. As test case, a cubical cereal-based structure was manufactured by traditional processing and 3D printing. Microstructure properties and mechanical attributes were analyzed. Here we show that 3D printing clearly affects the microstructure generating bigger pores, less in number and like-round in shape. Also, we have observed that the positions of the pores are greatly driven by the printing movements. These features significantly affect the mechanical properties of 3D samples showing high hardness, chewiness and cohesiveness. The obtained data have been linked and interpreted on the basis of three main key-points: 1. the printing path; 2. the imbalance between speed printing and extrusion rate; 3. the compression of the food formula in the extrusion system. These findings should be considered for creating food with innovative texture perceptions. Industrial relevance: The creation of 3D printed food with programmed texture has the ambitions of getting personalized properties improving industry competitiveness by novel texture perceptions and also helping to mitigate swallowing or mastication problems of vulnerable peoples. Here we show that 3D Printing process per se - intrinsically - modifies the morphology and the distribution of pores in 3D structure thereby affecting the texture of cereal-based snacks. All these because pores generation is not 'randomly' distributed as for traditional manufacturing methods but driven by printing movements previously planned during the slicing of digital model. With the aim to get personalized food texture the intimate relationship between the movements of printing and the food texture shall taken into account by interested industries and producers.