Technical Paper Effect of blanching periods and milling conditions on physical properties of potato powders and applicability to extrusion-based 3D food printing

A three-dimensional (3D) food printer is an attractive tool for making highly customized foods. The quality of powders and pastes used as ink in printers has a significant impact on print performance. The present study investigated the effect of the powder preparation method on particle size and flowability of the powder. The particle size of potato powders milled by jet mills was smaller than that milled by hammer mills, and the mean diameter depended on blanching conditions prior to drying and milling. The flowability of powders decreased with decreasing particle size, and improvement in flowability was required for the fine powders manufactured by jet mill. The printability of the potato pastes was influenced by blanching conditions and particle size. In addition, manufacturing procedures for powders play an important role in determining the optimum water content of pastes for 3D printed foods.