SUTD Researchers 3D Print Vegetarian Food From Rice and Lentil Flours

A team at the Singapore University of Technology and Design has 3D printed vegetarian food from nothing more than rice flour, lentil flour, and small additions of tapioca or wheat flour. The study, published in Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, tested 11 formulations and found three that printed cleanly, held their shape, and cooked into edible dishes.

The Ingredients

Rice and lentils are a classic pairing for good reason. Each lacks certain essential amino acids, but together they form a complete protein. The SUTD team, led by Professor Chua Chee Kai and Associate Professor Tan U-Xuan, wanted to see if minimally processed whole flours could work as printing inks without relying on refined starches or large amounts of hydrocolloids.

Research Associate Aakanksha Pant, the lead author, grew up in a vegetarian household where rice and lentils were staples. She saw the project as a way to connect material science with familiar food. The team tested white rice flour blended with red lentil flour, oil, seasonings, and water. Three formulations succeeded. One used only rice and lentil flours. A second swapped part of the rice for tapioca flour and added xanthan gum at just 0.05 percent by weight. A third combined rice, tapioca, and wheat flours.

Printing and Cooking

All three inks thinned under the shear of the nozzle and thickened again once deposited. The xanthan gum ink retained the most water but clumped during printing. The other two produced neat butterfly and cloud shapes.

Because the flours were raw, every print had to be cooked. The team froze each print overnight at minus 18 degrees Celsius, then oven-dried, air-fried, steamed, or microwaved it. Freezing proved crucial. It minimized shrinking during heat treatment and made the prints easier to handle. Steaming produced the densest, hardest, and most cohesive prints with no surface cracks. Air frying caused moderate puffing and browning through the Maillard reaction. The wheat-tapioca ink came out harder and chewier than the others. The plain rice-lentil ink handled both printing and cooking best.

Why It Matters

Two of the three inks are gluten-free. The ingredient list is short and recognizable. The approach bypasses the processed starches and chemical additives that make many 3D printed foods feel more like laboratory products than meals. For personalized nutrition, space travel, or places where food processing infrastructure is limited, the method offers a simpler path from raw ingredients to shaped, cooked food.