Can "normal" non-toxic ink be used instead of "edible ink" for edible ink printing?

Question

Many online resources claim that once you use "normal" ink in an inkjet printer, the printer is tainted and can no longer be safely used for edible printing. However, one edible ink vendor's maintenance guide actually recommends using Canon OEM ink when cleaning/unclogging the print head, then switching back to the edible ink cartridges for edible ink printing:

Please use the ORIGINAL Canon inks for cleanings, etc. as they are NON-TOXIC and will NOT CONTAMINATE your printer or print jobs!!! Also, if the printer is not going to be used for a while, please make sure to at least send a NOZZLE check to the printer once a week or more if you like, to keep the ink free‐flowing. 

Once you've done the distilled water cleaning and placed the Print‐Head back into the printer, do a thorough deep cleaning with the original inks and do a nozzle check. If all looks good,then replace with the edible ones and you should be good to go.

If the Canon ink is truly non-toxic, why not just use that for edible printing?

Edit: I found an article which suggests drinking normal non-toxic ink "can make you sick, but it is not life threatening." However, the article's only cited reference about inkjet ink makes a contrary claim, "Regular printer ink is toxic if ingested." Even if the normal ink can make you sick in large quantities, I still wonder how likely it is that the trace amounts used for an image on a cake are sufficient to make anyone sick.

Update: after looking at a couple MSDS sheets for Canon inks, I contacted Canon directly and this was their response:

Thank you for contacting Canon product support. I understand that you are trying to use Canon inks for edible ink printing.

Canon inks cannot be used for edible ink printing and cannot be consumed.

In addition, Canon does not recommend the use of edible ink or icing sheets for use in any of its range of Bubble Jet Printers. The printers are not designed to print with edible inks or to be used with edible icing paper.

Canon has not approved or tested edible inks or icing sheets.

Standard inks (either Canon manufactured inks or other third party inks) are not safe to digest and immediate medical advice should be sought if this were to happen.

If the use of such inks or media were contemplated then extreme caution should be taken to avoid cross contamination with the standard inks and to avoid contact with any of the printer internal components that could contain substances, which may be transferred onto the icing sheet.

In addition to the potential health and safety aspects, the use of these edible inks or icing sheets in your printer could result in reduced print quality, clogging of the printer's system or even damage to the printer's components. Under these circumstances if a failure develops in the printer, which is directly attributed to the use of such consumables, Canon reserves the right to refuse to repair the printer under warranty (in accordance with the applicable warranty terms).

I hope this information is helpful to you. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

Solution

I imagine there is a difference between ink that is designed not to harm you if you eat it and ink that is designed to be eaten.

With non-toxic ink, you don't care at all about the taste, and not many people are going to be eating it in volume (The dose is the poison). With edible ink, you don't want your cake to taste horrible, and people are going to be eating it all the time, so the safety standards are much higher.

You might be able to get away with using the non-edible ink, but frankly, I wouldn't try it.

Comments

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

As the 16th century toxicologist Paracelsius said, “All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy.”

[Andrew Morton]

Edible ink might not stain the skin (e.g. lips and tongue) the way that normal printer ink can.

[rob]

@techie007 how true, even today.

[rob]

@AndrewMorton good thinking, but again it might be a question of how much it takes to stain noticeably. Even common food-safe dyes, including the food coloring you buy at the grocery store, will stain your skin and mouth. I cringed when I saw an enormous burn or on my wife's hand the other day, then she told me it was just food coloring.

[rob]

The question is, what constitutes eating it in volume? The amount of ink used is negligible compared to the frosting, cake, and even the edible paper. I suppose one could lick the nozzle to see if it does have a bad taste, but it seems that unless it has an extremely potent odor or flavor after drying, the trace amount of ink on even a large 3" square piece of cake is unlikely to be detectable. Even toxic substances are allowed in our food and water in varying quantities, so I wonder how much of a non-toxic substance would be required to warrant a food safety or quality concern.

[David]

no idea, I looked up the MSDS safety sheet, but all it said was: "If ingestion of a large amount does occur, seek medical attention."

[Nullpointer42]

@rob I'm not sure how you're concluding the trace amount of ink is "unlikely to be detectable" via taste. From Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation": "A nose can detect aromas present in quantities of a few parts per trillion—an amount equivalent to 0.000000000003 percent." and "The chemical that provides the dominant flavor of bell pepper can be tasted in amounts as low as .02 parts per billion; one drop is sufficient to add flavor to five average size swimming pools."

[rob]

@ernie those are impressive figures but they don't give me an adequate frame of reference and it isn't clear whether they deal strictly with isolated compounds. I don't know what is considered an average size for a swimming pool or how many drops of the chemical are actually in a bell pepper. If the pools are chlorinated at 1-3ppm, you may not notice the bell pepper flavor. As far as my own supposition, I don't notice any significantly discernable odor from an inkjet print after it has dried, and I was questioning whether it would be detectable or if the other flavors would overpower it.

[rob]

@David I was hoping for something a bit more authoritative, but based on all the conflicting information I've found and the fact that Canon is trying to distance themselves as much as possible from edible ink printing (despite the fact that every edible ink vendor sells Canon-compatible cartridges), I think your answer pretty much sums up the concerns.