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Before you put duplicate from this Which are the food-safe materials and how do I recognize them? please read

I need to know if this 3D Ink™ (PLA Filament) is food safethis

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In general, PLA is known as a "food safe" filament, especially Natural PLA. However, filament suppliers have different processes that may detriment the food safe quality.

Doing a little digging, I found an article on the M3D site which mentions the following about their filament

All of our products, including our filaments are made from 100% non-toxic components and considered generally safe under normal use. They are not considered a chemical, or a hazardous material by OSHA standards. Therefore, OSHA defines it as an "article" and does not require MSDS sheets. You can see more information about that here: http://www.ilpi.com/msds/faq/partb.html#article

So, without contacting M3D directly to acquire an MSDS (or asking if its food safe), you will not find one online.

Here is an article on a few tips for printing food safe objects as well. In a nut shell, don't 3D print food handling objects with crevasses, using uranium, or intend to put in the oven (a.k.a common sense).

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  • $\begingroup$ What about the potential contamination from going through the hotend and everything before it or even from the substrate being printed on? Without some type of coating, no plastic is really safe coming off the printers. You could have coolant, oil, metal particles and other contaminants just from the hotend manufacturing process. $\endgroup$
    – tjb1
    Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 18:28
  • $\begingroup$ Those are all good points and I would really only be concerned about potentially flushing the hotend and wiping the build surface of debris. In all reality, you could probably just wash the part in the dishwasher on the top rack and call it good if the material is food-safe. However, I suppose it depends on the intended use of the part; personal use or consumer. $\endgroup$
    – tbm0115
    Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 19:27
  • $\begingroup$ Stuff like lead in brass nozzles seems alarming at first sight, but the same metals and fabrication techniques are used to make household water plumbing components. $\endgroup$
    – Ryan Carlyle
    Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 1:16
  • $\begingroup$ Is it inappropriate to use the "What doesn't kill you..." line? $\endgroup$
    – tbm0115
    Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 1:22
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In general no filament is safe as the printing process leaves "nooks and cranies" between the layers where germs can gain a foothold.

For food safe, I would advise:

  • print with white filament
  • use an acetone vapor bath to smooth and melt many of the "nooks and cranies" away.
  • Use a spray polyurathane and coat with 3-4 layers to reduce the evil "nooks and cranies" even more.

At that point it it should be dishwasher safe and food safe.

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