Print on Food with the BIQU Panda Treat

BIQU has really been innovating lately. Their own 3D printers aren’t particularly compelling, but their accessories — particularly for Bambu Lab printers — are very interesting. Now they’re releasing their most exciting new product yet: the BIQU Panda Treat food-printing inkjet attachment.

Joel Telling, AKA 3D Printing Nerd, has a great video from Formnext that shows a demo of an early prototype of the Panda Treat. It is a 2D printing inkjet attachment that snaps on to the toolhead of Bambu Lab A, P, X, and H series 3D printers. It sprays out food-safe ink (pretty much food coloring) that you can eat.

This is perfect for printing onto cakes or, as shown in Telling’s video, lattes. Because you have the full motion system of the 3D printer to work with, you can accommodate all kinds of foods and beverages.

The best part is that the installation is really easy. The only wires required by the Panda Treat attachment plug right into the fan connector, so there isn’t any permanent modification necessary and setup is super quick. Once installed, Panda Treat will work with a purpose-built web interface.

When I first saw this, I thought it was a fun novelty. But it doesn’t take much imagination to see how this could be a genuinely useful tool in bakeries, restaurants, and cafes. It should be a very affordable way to print on food, which has real potential.

Unfortunately, we don’t yet know how much it will cost. Panda Treat is on the BIQU online store, but is currently marked “sold out” with a price of $0.00 USD. In Telling's video, the BIQU rep said they're aiming for $149. But we won't know for sure until BIQU releases more information.