Posted by What if chocolate could be printed just like a 3D object and at the same time deliver valuable bioactive ingredients? A recent study takes a step in this direction by combining 3D chocolate printing with collagen peptide microencapsulation with β-cyclodextrin playing an important role in the formulation [1].
3D food printing is attracting growing interest because it can transform food from a conventional mass-produced product into a digitally designed, highly customizable material. Instead of simply shaping chocolate by hand or moulding it, a 3D printer can deposit the material layer by layer, creating complex geometries, personalized shapes and structures that would be difficult or impossible to produce using conventional processing.
But 3D printing food is not only about making chocolate look more spectacular. The internal structure of a printed food can also be engineered. This opens possibilities for controlling texture, portion size, ingredient distribution and, potentially, the way functional ingredients are released during consumption. Chocolate is particularly attractive for this purpose because its rheological properties can be carefully controlled to allow precise extrusion while maintaining the printed structure.
The study combines this technology with collagen peptide microcapsules prepared using β-cyclodextrin and porous starch. Encapsulation offers a way to incorporate collagen peptides into chocolate while protecting and stabilizing the active ingredient. Here, cyclodextrin therefore becomes part of a broader formulation strategy rather than simply serving as a traditional food additive.
The result points towards a fascinating future for functional foods: digitally designed foods in which shape, structure, composition and bioactive ingredients can all be engineered together. And in this scenario, cyclodextrins may become an increasingly useful tool for turning sophisticated food designs into functional products.
[1] Shao, J., Cao, Y., Zheng, Z., Lin, S., Zhang, Y., & Hu, J. (2027). Development of 3D-printed chocolate fortified with collagen peptides. Journal of Food Engineering, 423, 113287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2026.113287