Edible Inks

[pearlhouse]

Anyone here know to print with edible inks. Does this take a special type of printer. Interested in printing on icing for cakes. Is there a special paper to print on and then do a transfer to the icing. Ive seena lot of nice work lately in the stores and was wondering if it was possible without a dedicated printer or special printer.
Maybe somebody can lead me to a link that tells all about this process.

 

[msmart]

A link...... here's one sort of....

Click the Search link above, type "edible" then click Submit. Several topics will be returned.

 

[PeterBJ]

You use an ordinary Canon inkjet printer with separate print head and cartridges. A special set of refillable cartridges for the edible inks is recommended, as you cannot be sure to flush out all the original or refill ink from your Canon OEM cartridges.

Here is a link to one site selling edible inks, refillable cartridges, and accessories. It seems that the inks might have a tendency to clog the print heads, as they also sell a special "Power Flusher" to unclog Canon print heads. Link here: http://www.photofrost.com/ . There are more sites selling edible inks and accessories.

Also see this thread and note my post #6: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5923 The link to the Youtube video no longer works, but here is a new link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tydjteB1xNU

I wouldn't do this. Even if the inks might be approved as food colouring, and not harmful to humans, I fear that they might harm the printer.

 

[The Hat]

Anyone here know to print with edible inks. Does this take a special type of printer. Interested in printing on icing for cakes. Is there a special paper to print on and then do a transfer to the icing. Ive seena lot of nice work lately in the stores and was wondering if it was possible without a dedicated printer or special printer.
Maybe somebody can lead me to a link that tells all about this process.

If you were contemplating using edible inks it would be far better to use an Epson printer,
they are more accommodating than any Canon printer could ever be and it will cause no damage to them.

I would suggest you provide a picture in JPEG format to the local bakery instead
and let them do it for you; the cake will look and taste just as good..

 

[PeterBJ]

I just wonder how much print head cleaning it will take for all possibly harmful ink remnants to be purged from the print head, if you replace the normal cartridge set with one containing edible inks?

 

[cls]

I have a customer whom use one Epson S21 with refillable carts for edible printing on a4 edible paper sheets

I acutally sold him the S21 and the refillable carts
two sets of it, one for "cleaning" filled with 50% isopropylalcohol and 50% destiled water
one set with edible ink based on organic food coloring and glucose (sugar)

Each day after printing two cleaning cycle are mandatory to ensure there is no "edidbile" ink left in the print head
1.) Sugar clould create very bad clogs
2.) for sanatizing purposes to keep the printer Germ free


I serviced the printer two times, took it apart and cleaned all plastik parts with green soap and warm water, took out the cleaning assembly and put it into 99% iso-alc. for 24hours washed it of with tap water and dried it with paper towels.

ALSO important and mandatory EXTERNERAL Waste ink tank.

otherwise the printer would flush the sugar based edible ink into the printers waste ink sponges which will attrackt flies germs and other nasty stuff

In germany policies about food and health are prety scrict and my customer paid alot of money to me to ensure everything is fine!

basically ANY epson Printer with durabrite base would work just fine with edible ink if it uses straight paper path

 

[Lucas28]

A local baker offered me a set of Canon 525/526 cartridges. The carts came with his printer and he never installed them since he uses edible ink.

So a baker uses a regular Canon printer and the best way to prevent getting normal ink in our food is to start with a new, never used, printer

 

[websnail]

I know that cityinkexpress did a LOT of work on this with a view to becoming certified for the various food safety standards so dropping them a line would almost certainly provide some additional information.

There's an awful lot of kits being offered that don't take into account hygiene though so it's vital to get that right.

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

Most printers that have a separate printhead from the inks will have some kind of fluid in it to keep it from drying out though. You'll still have to flush that out. A Canon probably doesn't have much, an Epson would have more, and the Epsons that have their own "CSS-style" inks separate from the printhead probably aren't even worth using, you'd have to flush lots of ink/cleaner through it to clear out the system every time you clean!

 

[PeterBJ]

Here is a thread about cake printing from a baker's point of view: http://cakecentral.com/t/748152/question-about-edible-ink-printers

I only thought of possibly harmful ink residues, not about bacteria, so thanks to cls and websnail for the warnings. I wonder if the ink absorbers in a Canon printer could become a nice and cosy home for micro organisms?