Research on improving the structural stability of surimi 3D printing through laser cooking techniques

At present, research on 3D printing technology for meat protein food is still in its early stages, and improving the molding stability and accuracy of products has always been a key challenge. Here, we take surimi protein as an example and achieve its localized thermal gelation quickly and precisely by incorporating laser sintering technology. And based on the thermal denaturation and solidification of proteins during the printing process, the structural instability problem of meat protein food 3D printing is solved. In this study, we used a CO2 laser with a power of 50 W to locally heat cure surimi during the printing process. The results show that under the conditions of 1 mm laser spot diameter, 500 mm/s scanning speed and 0.25 mm scanning interval, the shape accuracy and gel strength of surimi products with 1.5 mm layer thickness are significantly improved, and this combination parameter shows the best effect in the experiment. This study provides a theoretical basis and reference for real-time solidification in meat protein food printing.