Our Solutions for Marking and Coding Food and Food-Adjacent Packaging
Printing on Food
Whether it’s celery, eggs, or other natural products: many foods and organic materials have porous, irregular, and highly absorbent surfaces that present a particular challenge for direct printing. Products destined for composting are already being marked today with food-safe inks from edding –for example for traceability, batch numbers, or best-before information.
The critical requirement for this application lies in the ink itself: it must be suitable for food-adjacent contact – for example on packaging that comes into direct contact with food items such as confectionery – and must not transfer any harmful substances to the product. The inks used are certified accordingly (e.g. to GMP/food-grade standards) and consist of 100% natural ingredients.
How Reliable, Food-Safe Printing Works
Marking food and comparable organic surfaces relies on Thermal Inkjet technology, implemented via the edding compact printer systems in 12.7 mm (0.5″). The real challenge, however, lies not in the printing system but in the ink: it must perform on absorbent, irregular surfaces such as eggshells or vegetable skins – entirely without harmful solvents.
In practice, this means: fast drying time, a long decap time, high contrast, and good abrasion resistance. The edding food-grade ink was developed specifically for this profile – tailored to food-adjacent use and porous, organic surfaces.
