Imagine printing your next meal like a document: layer by layer, perfectly shaped, and with the benefit of custom nutrition built in. It sounds fantastic, but the problem is that most food just can’t hold its shape. It turns to mush. It’s not suitable for the task. Now, researchers have discovered a fix. Turns out, the humble grain sorghum might be the key to making 3D-printed food actually work.

Would you print your dinner?

Sorghum is a versatile cereal grain. It’s grown as a staple crop in various climates, especially in parts of Asia and Africa, and it doesn’t get nearly enough nutritional credit. Sorghum is packed with nutrients like fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals, and it’s also a good source of antioxidants. But in this case, researchers weren’t so much interested in its nutritional value, but rather in how its proteins react to water.

Nearly all protein sources scientists have tested so far are hydrophilic, which means they absorb water like sponges. But sorghum is different. Its proteins are hydrophobic (they repel water). That makes them ideal for printing stable, detailed structures, whether it’s a cookie, a plant-based steak, or even an edible capsule filled with medication.

Ali Ubeyitogullari, a food engineer at the University of Arkansas, and Sorour Barekat, a postdoctoral fellow in his lab, pursued this idea. They say sorghum is also cost-effective and easy to work with.

So, they didn’t just try it once. The team tested dozens of combinations of sorghum protein concentration, printing speeds, and nozzle sizes to find the sweet spot. They found that 25% protein printed at 20 millimeters per second through a 0.64 mm nozzle gave the sharpest shapes. Higher concentrations actually made things worse, clogging the system or ruining the structure. Basically, this is the recommended setting for a sorghum 3D printer.

“What we’ve shown is that sorghum protein can be made into a novel 3D printable gel, which hasn’t been done before,” Ubeyitogullari said. “Due to their unique structure, these gels can be used in the food and pharmaceutical industries as a bioink to encapsulate medicine or as a carrier of hydrophobic compounds and nutrients.”

Why this matters

This isn’t just a gimmick. It’s a serious scientific advance with real potential.

Right now, 3D printing with food isn’t commonplace, it’s mostly found in research labs, high-end restaurants, and a few experimental food tech startups. But it could become commonplace, especially as the technology becomes cheaper, faster, and more reliable. 3D printing with other (non-food) materials has become increasingly common. However, the key isn’t just the machines, it’s finding the right materials that print well and offer real nutritional value.

Sorghum is all the more exciting as a crop. It isn’t just print-friendly, it’s planet-friendly. This grain grows in hot, dry regions where other crops fail. It’s drought resistant and it’s also pretty tasty, and plenty of people are already used to it.

But this isn’t just about dinner. Because sorghum gels resist water, they’re ideal carriers for fragile, water-insoluble medicines and nutrients. This means 3D-printed food could become a delivery system for drugs, especially in places without pharmacies or refrigeration. In the not-too-distant future, rural clinics might print a medicine-filled meal tailored to a patient’s exact needs, without any packaging at all except the smart, edible technology.

Sorghum is an ancient grain. It’s been cultivated by humans for millennia, dating back at least 5,000 years to early farming communities in Africa. Unlike modern, heavily modified crops like corn or wheat, sorghum has remained relatively unchanged and retains many of its original traits. Thanks to science (and a bit of engineering) this ancient grain may become the foundation for a new generation of future foods.

The study was published in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.