| Summary: | 3D food printing is a recent promising technology to break cultural barriers by introducing new food sources as microalgae, through innovative food shapes and textures, in a resource scarce world, unfeasible with the current intensive meat and agriculture industries. The present work intended to create an innovative gluten-free cereal snack nutritionally improved by incorporation of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina) using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. Furthermore, design settings alterations were performed, registered, and presented in a poster, to explore the creative reach of this technology. From control and different percentage microalgae doughs (5-30%), the ones with most adequate rheology and texture properties for a correct printing process were selected and baked. Nutritional characterisation of the control and 5% microalgae-containing snacks was thus performed, including their total protein and fatty acid content, ashes, humidity, water activity, energy, and carbohydrates, as well as total phenolics, pigments and antioxidant activity. Physical traits of snacks including their colour and dimensions were also analysed. Control snacks presented a lighter and yellow colour compared to snacks containing Chlorella and Spirulina, which had higher green chromaticity, resulting from the natural colour of the biomass. Nutritional characterization revealed Chlorella- and Spirulina-containing snacks had both higher contents of protein and essential minerals than control snack. Overall, 5% Spirulina-containing snacks presented the most promising nutritional and sensory performance with higher antioxidant activity, mineral and protein content. 3D food printing is still limited to the built-in computer assisted design (CAD) software that printers provide. Incorporation of 5% Spirulina improved the nutritional characterization and consumer’s perception of gluten-free products incorporating microalgae. Even so, microalgae incorporation in gluten-free foods using 3D printing requires further studying to allow its commercialization in the food market, while helping to provide consumers a more sustainable diet and respond to the current scarcity of food resources.
|
|---|