July 31: As South Korea enters a super-aged society, the rising number of cancer and chronic disease patients has made “eating well” an emerging national and social challenge. Dysphagia – difficulty swallowing – is a particularly common affliction among patients with intractable cancers, including pancreatic cancer, which occurs frequently in older adults. When swallowing function declines, nutrient intake becomes difficult, leading to rapid physical decline and making it harder for patients to continue cancer treatment. While liquid diets are currently the primary clinical alternative, they fail to preserve the original form and texture of food, reducing patients’ meal satisfaction—underscoring the urgent need for a practical solution.
The Natural Product Institute at the Gangneung Institute of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Oh Sang-Rok) has long conducted research leveraging natural-product-based core technologies to improve public quality of life. Building on this research foundation, a team led by Dr. Koo Song Yi, Senior Researcher at the Center for Natural Product Systems Biology, has developed a 3D food printing-based manufacturing technology for customized medi-foods. To address the mealtime challenges faced by dysphagia patients, the team engineered a composite ink for 3D printing that allows precise control of physical properties tailored to each patient’s individual swallowing ability.
The composite ink combines golden chlorella, a high-protein microalgae, with natural starches such as corn, potato, and tapioca. Using food rheology—the study of the flow and deformation of matter—the team scientifically engineered the ink’s viscosity and elasticity to be safe for patients to swallow while maintaining precise shape fidelity during 3D printing. Through this process, the team compiled data on property variations according to starch type and established customized property-control guidelines applicable to different stages of dysphagia.
The core achievement of this technology lies in reproducing food’s original shape and texture through 3D printing while preserving its nutritional function. Because patients can eat meals that retain the familiar appearance of everyday food, they can experience greater psychological satisfaction and regain dignity in eating. The research team plans to further develop the composite ink material into a high-functionality precision nutrition material enhanced with immune-modulating components for pancreatic cancer, expanding its application beyond cancer patients to improving quality of life for elderly populations more broadly.
This research is particularly significant in that it establishes standards for precisely adjusting food texture according to a patient’s dysphagia stage, enabling precision food design tailored to individual patient conditions. Moving beyond the one-size-fits-all approach of conventional liquid diets, the study lays the groundwork for developing customized medi-foods that enhance both the convenience and satisfaction of patient meals.
“This is an innovative achievement that uses advanced technology to solve a mealtime challenge patients face every day,” said Dr. Koo Song Yi. “We plan to further develop this core technology into a high-functionality precision nutrition material that contributes to improving the quality of life of cancer patients and the elderly.”
This achievement reflects the convergence of the Gangneung Institute’s Natural Product Institute’s long-accumulated expertise in natural-product materials with its multidisciplinary capabilities in food engineering and microbiology. It also aligns with the institute’s mission of extending the nation’s healthy life expectancy by helping overcome intractable diseases such as pancreatic cancer.
This research was supported by Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Bae Kyung-hoon) and Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (Minister Song Mi-ryung), through the KIST Grand Challenge Program (2Z07256) and the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (2ME2610). The findings were published in the latest issue of Food Hydrocolloids (Impact Factor 12.4, top1.9% in its JCR category).