University of Exeter scientists will be the toast of chocolate lovers everywhere with this creation, which you can see a video of below. According to an article on the BBC the printer is still a prototype, but several retailers are interested in taking on the device in the future. The 3D printer uses layers of chocolate instead of ink.

This type of printing is already widely used with plastic and metal, and is said to speed up design work. It starts like any other 3D printing method with a flat cross-section image, similar to conventional printers creating images.

Then a 3D shape is created layer by layer using chocolate instead of ink, similar to layering 2D paper to create a 3D shape. After a layer is finished it goes solid so the printer then moves to the next layer. In 2010 researchers from Cornell University in the US made an effort to create a food printer, using liquefied foods in place of inks.

Dr Richard Hague from Loughborough University said the creation by the team from Exeter is a leap forward towards creating a device which will be capable of printing perfect 3D objects which will taste nice. Keeping the temperature at the right levels is crucial in getting the printing process right.

Once the prototype is tweaked and perfected it could find itself a role in the restaurant and food industry. With the fact it uses chocolate will make it appealing to a lot of people, and users will create an object on their computer before hitting the print button.

The team wants to take the device further and into cyberspace and create a chocolate oriented website. People could share their creations on a social network with the options for it endless. Users could create things ideal for birthdays and other special occasions, and then just go down to a store and pick up their own personalized creation which just happens to be made from chocolate.

Companies such as online gift retailer findmeagift.co.uk. Have expressed an interest in the idea, and Joanna Grant from the company said “Obviously, it’s chocolate, so it is hugely appealing”.

Do you like the idea of a chocolate printer?

More About: chocolate

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Now we are no experts, but we do know that American’s love chocolate, you only have to look at some of their foods and drinks to realize this. However, it is also popular in other parts of the world, so why not have a day that helps to celebrate it? So what kind of things can you partake in today in celebration of this strange day?

Well the first is to take a day off your diet and have a chocolate related breakfast, which will then been followed in a few hours by a chocolate based drink and snack for lunch and then finish with a lovely chocolate desert dessert after your dinner.

While we cannot find any Chocolate Day activates today, we do know that everyday is a Chocolate Day at Cadbury World. Why not help support this ailing company by going there for the day and enjoy everything chocolate?

There is a host of other things that you can also do, such as visit a health spa and have yourself covered in chocolate, which is said to be very good for the skin. There are even chocolate yoga classes, now do not ask me how I know this, I just do.

Another great thing you can do today is create a custom M&M character, which you can do by visiting the official M&M website. You will see that you will have the opportunity to choose a body, shape, arms, legs, face and accessories for your M&M character. Once you have done this you can then generate what it will look like, all you have to do to complete this process is give the little guy a name and then submit it.

The final thing that you can do today is send someone your love today in the form of chocolate. You can do this by simply sending an eCard that has a chocolate theme. There are 17 to choose from on 123greetings.com, just try not to send one to someone who has an issue with weight, as they could get offended.

For a few more details on this day, then watch the video that we have embedded for you below.

More About: chocolate, Events

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This tree produces the seeds used to make cocoa the main ingredient in chocolate, and the information will help grow stronger tree’s resistant to disease and easier to grow for millions of farmers.

The company behind Snickers and M&M’s has decided to share the information instead of keeping it secret. Having better tree’s means more chocolate for years to come for everyone. Howard-Yana Shapiro a staff officer of plant science and research at mars said “The information is so rich and so accurate we felt there was no reason to hold back.”

In the US not much cocoa is produced, but companies such as Mars rely so much on it and led to the US Department of Agriculture trying to come up with a better cacao tree since 1999.

Mars in partnership with IBM and the USDA began sequencing the cacao genome in 2008, and Mars put $10 million in to the project. The results have been shared three years ahead of schedule.

Click here to read the full story.

More About: chocolate, DNA

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