Your dinner is printed: Whether you'd like to channel your inner chocolatier, jazz up the leftovers, spice up an astronaut's diet, or mimic the texture of a steak, 3D printers are here to help

AT ITS SIMPLEST, the 3D printing of food takes the form of extruding purees through nozzles that consider the viscosity of the original feedstock, and printing it in additive layers onto a platform. The end result is often dried or baked into a biscuit form. The cognoscenti actually call this 2.5D, as the process involves many 2D layers and only the final product is itself a 3D object. Another approach is to load up a printer with capsules of ingredients, like inkjet printer cartridges. Supply water, oil and heat and the printer can then combine these ingredients into a finished meal. Indeed, food printers could potentially prepare a wide range of meals from a handful of basic ingredients.