Research on Real‐Time Cooking of 3D ‐Printed Silver Carp Surimi Using CO 2 Laser

ABSTRACT Selective laser cooking is a new type of food processing technology. Unlike traditional cooking methods, laser cooking is characterized by high precision, high efficiency and non‐contact. In this study, we combined selective laser sintering with food 3D printing using a CO 2 laser with a power of 50 W. The printing layer thickness and laser parameters (including scanning speed and scanning interval) were adjusted to optimize the cooking performance of silver carp surimi, based on real‐time monitoring of its internal temperature variation. The heat generated by the infrared laser with a wavelength of 10.6 had a thermal penetration depth of nearly about 1.2 mm for silver carp surimi. By adopting a suitable scanning speed (800 mm/s), scanning interval (0.6 mm) and increasing the number of scans on the current layer (10 times), we finally succeeded in cooking silver carp surimi to a safe edible temperature (> 62.8°C) during the 3D process, and the cooked surimi products were superior to the traditional oven cooking in terms of texture and shape accuracy. This study provides a theoretical basis and an effective means for meat food to be cooked in the 3D printing process.