Natural Machines has developed a 3D printer for people who are too tired or don't feel like cooking dinner after a busy day.
The printer, called "Foodini," uses capsules of fresh ingredients with little or no preservatives to create a variety of fresh food, such as pizza, mini-burgers, spaghetti, and chocolate and is the same size as a microwave oven.
Users choose a recipe from their own PC, mobile device or from Foodini's own recipe collection. Then the printing can begin and is reported to take just a few minutes to complete. Users can now cook the printed food whichever way they want.
Lynette Kucsma, co-founder of Natural Machines, says the technology in Foodini is the same found in most 3D printers that print plastic, "but with plastic there's just one melting point, whereas with food it's different temperatures, consistencies and textures. Also, gravity works a little bit against us, as food doesn't hold the shape as well as plastic."
"The food is real food, made from fresh ingredients prepared before printing," Natural Machines said in a statement.
"Promoting cooking with fresh ingredients, Foodini manages the difficult and time-consuming parts of food preparation that often discourage people from creating homemade food."
While Foodini is only able to print and assemble food, Natural Machines plans on making another printer that will be able to prepare and cook dishes that are ready to eat.
"In essence, this is a mini food manufacturing plant shrunk down to the size of an oven," Kucsma said.
"It's also a fabulous resource for market research. We got a lot of great feedback, so that more than made up for it," Kucsma added.
The goal for the company is to make Foodini available to the public in the second half of 2015. Another objective is to develop preservation-free pre-packaged capsules that will have a shelf-life of five days and will target restaurants, professional cooks and catering companies.
Natural Machines plans on making Foodini available to the masses for $1,000.
