Edible Jumpers Powered by Shell Snapping

Food animation is gaining increasing attention for the ability to reduce waste and increase attractiveness in animals and humans. Although several examples of food animation methods have been recently described, the speed and range of motion are still limited. Here a method is described to design and manufacture small edible jumpers powered by rapid release of elastic energy through shell snapping. The jumping actuators are made of gelatin crosslinked with genipin and polyvinyl alcohol, ensuring resilience to stress during shell eversion. The shape and size of the shells are modeled and optimized for maximum jumping height resulting in jumpers with a diameter of 47 mm that can reach a jumping height of 361 mm. The edible jumpers can be loaded with additional nutritional components encapsulated by humidity-sensitive latches for automatic release. To showcase potential uses of such edible jumpers, a jumping food pellet for pets and an animated dessert for humans are described.