THAT is a good idea! Or size it to use paper bowls as a liner?
I recall them being marketed as micro beads in a variety of cleaning and hygiene products.
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Interesting discussion. If I grok the general flow of things, the real danger is not really materials (once cured it should be stable) but the inability to seal the final product against bacterial intrusion and an inability to sterilize materials due to melting/deformation of finished products sanitary temperatures.
Iām brand spanking new to this (like 24 hours with my first machine) but yāall have mostly convinced me to stick with wood for anything that touches food.
Apparently I canāt include the link, but thereās good science indicating that wood naturally kills bacteria.
Because you are new, you need to achieve a few basic things before you can move up to the first trust level.
Get to trust level 1 byā¦
- Entering at least 5 topics
- Reading at least 30 posts
- Spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts
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Mostly true but also materials and how some can easily shed when they are rubbed, seal or no. The carbon fiber filled filaments being a particular example.
typical vetting of new users. Itās to be expected. Iām just happy that I donāt need to do that as part of my job anymore. If anyone needs to check the veracity of my claim, Iāve left enough information or they can ask and Iāll fill in more blanks. No hurt feelings here.
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Makes sense. A UV curing resin is probably an expensive solution to a problem with little demand for a costly solution. Itās an interesting enough topic. I see some applications where I might tempt fate but thereās enough information to dissuade me from investing a lot of effort trying to make food safe products. From my personal risk assessment, it looks like funnels and pour spouts for dry goods made with the more inert products would pose a low danger threshold. Iām old enough to have survived DDT and malathion, so I think of myself as more data driven on exposure.
I agree. And I think plain PLA may be safest. In looking up other stuff I saw where it is used for suture material. But no idea on the colors and what chemicals may be involved or if they are dangerous. They may be fine or maybe not.
FWIW I donāt know if it was this thread or a similar one but my suggestion is make your 3D print as you desire but design the void area where any food would go to be able to drop a Rubbermaid or similar container in that cavity.
Then you just take your Rubbermaid dish, put a Rubbermaid lid on it and problem solved.
The print is just a decorative cover for a food grade bowl/container.
Hi all, I had already read about the issues related to FDM and food, hence so far I avoided printing anything that could be food related.
However I was recently modeling a napkin holder for the xmas contest and after reading this thread started wondering if that as well could potentially be dangerous: i.e. microplastics from holder transferred to napkins and then ingested.
It seems a bit of a stretch, but better safe than sorry 
What do you think?
Unless you coat the napkin holder with foodstuffs, you do not have a bacterial issue to consider.
Remember it is the food contacting the materials that gives rise to the potential of bacterial growth.
Provided you make your best efforts to clean them after use, even if you do not see anything obvious and do not attempt to use them as soup spoons, I would suggest your issues are minimal at worst.
Bowls, cutlery, and dishes have direct and constant contact with food, these are the main areas of concern.
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There is quite a bit of misconception as to how microplastics enter the biome.
The overwhelming majority is from industrial packaging, product ingredients such as facial scrub, and trash such as the millions and millions of thin, flimsey grocery sacks.
Ever been in a large fiberglass boat factory?
PHA is dish-washer safeā¦ Its home compostable and contains no microplasticsā¦
Maybe this is a way to goā¦ You still have the layer gaps, but you can cook it in boiling water, tested that myselfā¦
I came across this video today. The content is not related to this thread but what caught my attention is, he uses a kind of epoxy resin to water proofing his sea scooter and it looks like it is highly effective. I do not know the brand he uses in this video but epoxy resin is regarded as food safe once fully cured.
With my food safety certification this read like an instruction manual. Sound advice.
Personally I am of the mindset the only FDM for food would be to make a silicone mold and just go all silicone. Even then not so sure.
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Seems like you could make some decorative (3d printed) item and design it to hold a food safe bowl like a Rubbermaid bowl. Take the bowl of dip, put a lid on it, into the refrigerator it goes. The decorative dip carrier goes in pantry until next time.
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If you read my first post before you might have realized, I am not a fan of diy FDM and resin kitchenwares either. It looks like some others are more willing to try. I posted the video for them. At least the resin in the video seems like it does not crack during pressure and flex. Which is one of the concerns about resins and polishes i mentioned in my prior post.
Iām curious why thereās a āCoffee Station Design Contestā currently on MakerWorld? Most of the designs are made to be in direct contact with the coffee ingredientsā¦ they have to know that people are going to make foolish designs?!? It seems like a disclaimer should be in the top banner explaining the dangers.
Why would you make this?
This is just an example of the general lack of understanding about micro-plastic creation (primarily) and a lack of awareness of the materials we put food in (bowls, plates) and/or the things we use to consume fast-food with. Be that a Styrofoam cup of coffee, or the forks in a big container at the soda station.
Micro-plastics are created by the degradation of plastics over time.
The risk of ingesting micro-plastics by putting a bunch of wrapped mints in a Santa motif bowl of PLA is about zero.
Micro-plastics exist, no question about that. How you get them into your system is where things go south.
You can put wrapped mints into your Santa bowl for the next twenty years and it is NBD.
Take your Santa bowl out to the garage and smash it into red PLA dust and fling that dust out into the yard, now, youāve done something in regards to micro-plastics.
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