Neo Fruit | A collection of artificially designed fruits made with 4D printers

25-10-2019

Fruit can provoke emotions and desires, have a perfect natural packaging, use colours to indicate which minerals and vitamins they contain, what their flavour is, and how ripe or rotten they are. A whole world of visual, sensual, nutritional and practical experience bundled together in each fruit. The creator of Neo Fruit finds this full sensual eating experience is missing in food supplements produced nowadays. He created ‘Neo Fruits’, artificial fruit, produced with 4D printers technology, using cellulose, an organic material. Neo Fruits intends to offer a food of the future that considers shape and content as critical factor for the eating experience.

Designed by Meydan Levy, an industrial designer from Israel. And we spotted it through the event for Biodesign, the future of materials, manufacturing, architecture & fashion: #BiodesignHereNow by Open Cell. Would we be eating fruit this way in the future? Or take our food supplements? It most certainly looks more appealing than a powder or capsules!

Demand for food consumption and supplements

World population is growing rapidly, raising the demand for food consumption higher than ever before. Modern agriculture has been using various methods to reach this growing demand, first by expanding farmland, second by using chemical enhancers, fertilizers and

genetic modification. These methods had helped grow more food and faster, but commonly with a high price. First, air, ground and water pollution, penetrates the fruits and vegetables consumed. Second, reducing residential land by expanding farmland. And last, huge quantities of discarded fruits and vegetables are thrown away for not meeting aesthetic standards created due to genetic modification. Nutrition Supplements might be the solution for these problems. However, nutrition supplements, today, often lack a relation between shape and content, and are commonly produced as powders, capsules or spheres.

The technology behind Neo Fruit

Technology today enables the creation of endless options with 4D printers. Neo Fruits are produced with this technology, using cellulose, an organic material. This material is being utilized for structure and for content. For the peel they print a flat structure and for the filling they make use of cellulose. This dry structure is then enriched with phytochemicals, which are chemical compounds produced by plants. Generally these compounds protect plants against diseases but recent research suggests it might also protect humans against diseases. Thereafter, microtubes are being implemented in the structure of these fruits which are filled with printed mineral and vitamin enriched liquids. Through the injected liquid, the fruit comes to life. Its volume, colour, texture, flavour and final structure arises.

Website: Meydanish

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