Although the technology has barely begun, the capabilities of 3D printing are already both startling and scary. But food printing? No, and people's imaginations are being taken for a joyride to think so.
A firm in Spain, for example, says it will begin marketing "Foodini", a sleek kitchen microwave-looking unit that it calls a 3D food printer in mid-2014. Estimated market price is $1,350.
Frankly, if Foodini is a 3D food printer then Fred Flintstone's feet really are a car engine.
It is another example of marketing sleight of hand that lets (encourages?) consumers' perceptions to grasp wildly at the only reference point they have. In this case, the food replicator from Star Trek.
Foodini is no less a fantasy. It doesn't create anything. Instead, it is more of a programmable dispenser, via the clear plastic funnel tube seen in the photo above, that uses meat or dough slurry, or whatever food substance the owner loads into it, to "print" a defined shape.
You want a perfectly round hamburger patty? It will make one. Or, you can go to the market and buy a bag of them.
But I'll grant Foodini this: It may turn out to be a tiny first step toward a concept that may one day turn out to be possible. In the meantime, dairy producers shouldn't be in a hurry to sell their cows
