Imagine having a 3D food printer the size of a microwave oven that can "print" quick, customized meals with little or no effort on your part? This is not wishful thinking, for specialized 3D food printers that can print chocolate, cheese and cookies - with inputs such as flour, melted chocolate and sugar - have already gone on sale.

A Chinese company in Jiangsu province that specializes in bioscience application in 3D printing thanks to Yan Yongnian, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Tsinghua University, has even "printed" a chunk of meat by using ingredients like lab-cultivated cells and proteins.

3D printing transforms 3D digital files into physical objects by laying down successive layers of materials until the final shape of the desired three-dimensional object emerges. Instead of ink, a 3D printer uses materials such as plastic, metals, wax, ceramic, chocolate, mashed potato and even cell tissues.