Can A Regular Printer Use Edible Ink & Edible Paper?
As someone new to the baking and decorating scene you will discover that using edible images is an easy way of maximizing the “WOW” factor of your dessert creations. With that said you might be wondering if you can use your regular inkjet printer to print edible images?
The simple answer to this question is that it is not advisable for you to use your regular printer to print edible images. For an image to be edible it must be made from edible paper, ink, and using an edible printer.
Once a regular inkjet printer has been used to print with regular ink cartridges (ink that is not deemed safe for consumption by the FDA) the printer is not safe to be used for edible printing. It is now contaminated by toxic inedible ink.
Regular ink is harmful to your health and cannot be consumed. Even if you replace the regular ink with edible ink cartridges the safety of the printer is still compromised to use with edible ink.
I highly recommend Sweet and Magical Birthday Cake Printer Bundle which is a printer designed to make edible images and it comes with both edible ink and edible paper.
Can You Clean a Regular Used Inkjet Printer to Use Edible Ink?
Even cleaning your printer does not completely remove all traces of the previous in edible ink especially when you consider that cleaning a printer is very difficult to do and the possibility exists that the printer may still have traces of regular ink. The regular ink previously used in the printer will then mix together with the edible ink compromising the safety of the edible ink.
The FDA specifies that edible images must be made from 100% edible paper and 100% edible ink in order for them to be considered as consumable.
If you have used a printer that used regular ink and then tried to print an edible image using edible ink it is advisable to throw away the image as it may be contaminated.
It is also advisable to discard the edible ink cartridges and edible paper used in the compromised printer because they may now be tainted with toxic ink.
Can You Use Edible Ink in A New Regular Inkjet Printer?
Even if you have a regular inkjet printer that has never been used before it is still not advisable to use it with edible ink and edible paper. The reason being is that regular printers are not technically designed to be used with edible paper( frosting & wafer sheets) and edible inks.
So if you use a regular printer with edible ink you risk your printer-head becoming clogged. It can also harm other components of your printer. If your regular printer becomes damaged due to the use of edible inks the manufacturer of the printer might not want to replace or repair its broken parts even if it is under the warranty period.
Both Canon and Epson major printer manufacturers do not recommend the use of edible inks with a regular inkjet printer. While some might take a chance with using a new inkjet printer and edible ink to print an edible image the resulting image will have a very weak and blur resolution. Definitely not be as bright or clear as an image printed on an edible ink printer using the suitable edible ink.
These days printers both regular and edible ink printers are very inexpensive and easy to find so investing in an edible ink printer is a good choice to perfect your edible image designs.
If you decide to buy an edible ink printer to use for your edible images it’s recommended that you should store it away from your regular printer and its accessories so as to avoid any mix up of the inks and its other components.
