Edible technology – scientists bake the cake of the future

This picture shows scientific research: a team of researchers and confectioners builds on the »Robocake«. (Image source: EPFL)

A wedding cake that shines and moves. What looks more like the latest cake artists on Instagram is actually serious research. An interdisciplinary research project has developed the first edible technology with the Robocake.

And that has a serious background.

A wedding cake from the research laboratory

The Swiss university Lausanne Federal Polytechnic School (EPFL) has published a video on your YouTube channel that looks less like technical research than more like baking.

Conditators can be seen that build on a multi -storey wedding cake. It is garnished with shining LED candles, and there is no stiff plastic bride or two large red gummy bears on the top, which rock back and forth together.

Link to the YouTube content

The video shows that Robocakea first result for edible technology of the EU-financed Robofood project.

In addition to the Swiss EPF, the interdisciplinary research is also Italian Institute of Technology and confectioners and food researchers from the Swiss hotel school Lausanne hotel school involved.

Technology as a cake decoration

According to the information on the EPFF website, the researchers have integrated two components of edible technology:

The bright candles Small LED candles that are operated with batteries are on the base of the cake. The latter consist entirely of edible individual parts.

• dark chocolate: Battery housing
• Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): Anode (occupied in a comparable paper)
• Quercetin (Vegetable natural dye): Cathode
• Activated carbon material as a stabilizer and for the electrical conductivity

This Chocolate battery Creates a voltage in the range of approx. 0.65 volts-according to the researchers, this is safe for consumption and is enough to operate a small LED light for about 10 minutes.

At first they taste chocolatey, followed by one Surprisingly sour kick, which is caused by the edible electrolytes inside.

This is what the edible batteries look like. (Image source: EPFL)

The dancing bear couple At the top of the cake are movable figures. The researchers themselves are robot designated. You can move your head and arms and consist entirely of consumable material:

• Gelatin, sugar syrup and Food -colored: Body
• Pneumatic system:
  If air is pumped through special channels, arms and heads move.

The gummy bears on the cake taste like pomegranate.

That is why research is carried out on edible robots

The developers of edible technology are certainly aware of the curiosity of their development: Robotics and food are two separate worldssays Dario Floreano, coordinator of the Robofood project on their website.

In the connection of the two areas, however, he sees some advantages:

• Avoidance of waste, both from food and electronic parts
• Food delivery in endangered areas
• Admission of medication on patients with difficulty swallowing (from pills, for example) or animals
• Monitoring of the freshness of food with edible sensors

So Robofood does not work on the next food trend, but on potentially future-oriented innovations. Because at the core, it is about making non-transplant parts eating and compostable.

Especially in a world in which more and more technology dominates everyday life, questions about their disposal arise. Because, according to Robofood, 40 million tons of battery waste are created each year.

And who knows, maybe we will celebrate the purchase of a new cell phone with the food of the old in the distant future.

What do you think about it? Do you think Robofood is an exciting project? Or can you not imagine with the best will that you can actually make significant parts of electronics eating or compostable? Write us your opinion in the comments!