Answer
Oct 31, 2024 - 01:29 PM
Edible Ink Printers come in 2 general forms: (1) Edible Ink Printers that print to edible paper such as frosting / icing sheets or wafer sheets, and (2) Direct to Food ® Edible Ink Printers. Here is a breakdown of each:
(1) Edible Ink Printers that print to edible paper such as frosting / icing sheets or wafer sheets, also referred to as "Standard Edible Ink Printers" are used to print to / create "edible images" or "edible toppers" for cakes / cupcakes etc. These edible images are applied to the foods with a little bit of moisture (such as water mist, or directly to a wet surface such as directly to wet icing / butter-cream etc). The custom printed toppers are incredibly easy to apply to just about any food, and printing them is also incredibly easy to do (just think of how easy printing to regular paper is, the only difference is that you're printing with edible ink to edible paper). There is a variety of edible papers, primarily frosting / icing sheets (which are smooth and velvety and flexible), as well as wafer paper / rice paper (which are harder, more textured, and less flexible, but good for stand up decorations , think edible playing cards, edible menus, and other concepts where you want the edible images to be more able to stand up on their own). InkEdibles offers different types of frosting sheets, and wafer paper (which is better than rice paper and made in Europe and from very simple ingredients).
(2) Direct to Food ® Edible Ink Printers, print directly to food - such as printing directly to cookies, macarons, marshmallows, and any other reasonably flat non-oily food. There is no edible paper involved, so the final prints look better in the sense that they are incorporated into the food itself, and therefore there isn't also an extra layer of edible paper which has its own texture / flavor. InkEdibles is a pioneer in Direct to Food ® printing and owns the trademark.
The main pros/cons/comparisons are as follows:
Price: Standard Edible Ink Printers are much cheaper to get started with (around $350 to $400 or less to get started including supplies, training and support). But you need to continue buying edible papers, which can run you around $0.50 to $1.50 per "sheet" depending on the type of edible paper you prefer. By comparison, a Direct to Food ® printer starts at around $2500 and goes up from there depending on speed/capacity that you need. But you don't have to buy edible paper, so your per unit cost is much less, so much better if you're doing volumes, or depending on the type of foods you want to print to.
Ease of use: Standard Edible Ink Printers are easy to use, Direct to Food ® printers have a higher learning curve and include a personalized onboarding / training session.
Look of the final product: If you're looking to customize cakes or cupcakes, the final look of Standard Edible Ink printing looks fantastic, but you need to decorate around the edges (such as with piped icing) to "hide" or blend the edible paper into your cake. If you're doing cookies, same thing. But with Direct to Food ® printers there is no hiding or blending needed as the prints are directly on the cookies / food!
Items to be printed to: If you're mainly looking to make custom printed cakes or cupcakes, standard edible ink printing is probably best because it is easy to apply the printed edible paper to the cakes and cupcakes and decorate around the edges of the edible images. Have you seen the burn-away-cake concept? That can only be done with standard edible ink printing. If you're focused on making custom printed cookies, macarons, marshmallows and other similar treats, Direct to Food printing is better because the final product will look better as opposed to having edible images applied to those small treats. However, with cookies you can also make them beautiful with standard edible ink printing as long as you decorate around the edible image edges. For oreos, standard edible ink printing works very well too because you can cover them in chocolate, apply the edible images and decorate around the edges.
In summary, both printing technologies definitely have their value and benefits, it depends on what you're looking to achieve.
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