ADVANCING THE SCIENCE OF 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES FOR NOVEL PULSE-BASED FOOD PRODUCTS

The overall goal of this project is to develop 3D printing technology for reliably transforming pulses that are highly nutritious, affordable, and sustainable, into food products with excellent shelf life, personalized nutrition, and novel sensory attributes. There are four specific aims and each aim has a number of objectives as described below:Aim A: Characterization of powders and binders to establish shelf-life and printabilityA1. Measure the particle size distribution, flowability, and shelf-life of at least five different pulse powders and the rheology and surface tension of at least three different aqueous bindersA2. Mold different combinations of pulse powder and binder into specimens for hardness testing. Samples with hardness values comparable to typical food products (10 - 100 N) will be down selected for printing.Aim B: 3D Printing using a commercially available and a custom-built 3D printerB1. Construct jettability diagrams for different liquid binders based on jetting waveforms (voltage, pulse width, and frequency)B2. Print cubic test structures, at least ten per condition, for mechanical analysisB3. Add selected nutrients during printing and measure the nutrient content in the printed structures for assessing sample-to-sample variation and possible degradationB4. Investigate how the incorporation of reclaimed powders may impact the printed structure propertiesAim C: Process optimization through physics-based modeling and machine learningC1. Model the jetting, powder spreading, and binder penetration using a physics-based approachC2. Apply active machine learning algorithm to find the jetting waveforms that result in consistent jetting using as few experiments as possibleC3. Learn physical models from experimental data using generative adversarial networksAim D: Characterization of printed structures for sensory properties, nutritional value, and shelf-lifeD1. Measure the mechanical properties and nutrient content of printed structuresD2. Conduct sensory panels with trained panelists to evaluate the sensory properties using a 9-point quality scale: appearance, odor, taste, texture and overall quality.D3. Perform accelerated storage studies at 100 °F for 0, 1, 3, and 6 months on feedstock to validate a 3-year shelf life