During the Dutch Design Week I came across Carolin Schulze’s “Bugs Bunny” (Falscher Hase in German), a project 3D printing foodstuffs using mealworms as material. She sought to work on both the general western aversion against eating insects, and the reduction of resource use to provide proteins. With a home built 3D printer she printed bunny (and grashopper) shaped snacks made of mealworms.

On 14 October she both won the public design award and the design award for most interesting experiment of the Burg Giebichenstein art academy in Halle, Germany where she is in her 2nd semester of an MA in industrial design.

Starting from ‘raising’ your own crop of mealworms, which you then shred into a past for your 3D printer, you can create various shapes that no longer generate the aversive reactions insect shapes normally create in western Europe.

Start with mealworm raising, end up with bunny shaped 3d printed snack

The 3d printer (working on compressed air) and some printed mealworm based edible objects

A short video showing various steps in the project was posted by Carolin Schulze

bugs bunny – 3d printed food with mealworms from Caroe Schulze on Vimeo.