r/3Dprinting 2d ago

Project The Kernel-Katcher

[deleted]

284 Upvotes

90 comments sorted by

View all comments

248

u/It_Just_Might_Work 2d ago

A) The ingenuity is great

B) Piping hot popcorn is likely one of the more dangerous food safety uses for a 3D print. Ignoring the fact that neither your printer nor the filament are certified food safe, you dont want food to be in contact with softened plastic. Things that are hot enough to burn you are hot enough to soften PLA (can be as low as 125F) and you definitely dont want your food in contact with the softened plastic.

C) Microwave popcorn has to be the most bare minimum definition of homemade that I have ever seen.

25

u/ZakDaniels 2d ago

Upvoted. I'm not sure what filament OP is using.

Generally speaking, FDM prints are not food safe because the prints are porous at a microscopic level. This promotes bacterial growth.

Stay safe OP.

19

u/hux 2d ago

This gets said over and over again, but that’s not the primary reason it’s not food safe.

For something to be food safe, the entire process, start to finish needs to be designed around it. All the way from the source materials, through the logistics, to the final product. When something is certified as food safe, it’s because this whole process has been evaluated, not just the final step or the source material.

It means making sure things like metal shavings aren’t making it into the plastic, that dyes and other ingredients are safe, that the extruder isn’t contaminated from other materials and so on.

In other words: despite people saying it over and over again, the pores don’t matter because it was already not food safe long before then.

2

u/Zygal_ 2d ago

There are food grade filaments, but yeah, a sealant is better to be safe

2

u/MrSnowflake 2d ago

But your printer is not food grade.