Primera, which is best known for its entry level label printers, has introduced a desktop inkjet printer that jets edible inks, called Eddie.
Eddie has been designed to print directly to cookies, biscuits and other complete food items up to 89mm wide. It comes with a carousel feeder that rotates the items past the printheads so that it can print up to six objects per minute, depending on the item size and actual print design. The printer pulls in one item at a time, prints and sends them
back to the carousel – all automatically and hands-free. It will take items from 38 to 89mm in size, though the print width is 25 to 89mm.
The printer uses thermal inkjet with native print resolution of 1200 dpi though Primera claims that it can print images up to 1200 x 4800 dpi.
The prints dry right after printing and are immediately ready for sale. The printed images are said to be bright and smudge-resistant and can be colour matched to ICC standards. The ink is supplied in a single cartridge that contains the cyan, magenta and yellow colours.
The edible ink cartridge meets all FDA and EU standards for use as a food additive though there are slightly different formulations approved for the US and for the EU, as the US magenta ink contains red dyes #3 and #40 and blue dye #1, which are not permitted for use in food colourings in the EU, while the EU Magenta contains carmoisine, which is not approved for use in food colourings in the USA.
The ink cartridge itself meets cGMP standards and the entire manufacturing and cartridge filling processes are FDA-compliant and cGMP certified. Eddie has also been certified by the American company NSF, which certifies machines for food preparation. The certification even includes kosher and halal standards.
It’s not hard to imagine the applications for personalised cakes, which includes everything from birthdays to holiday celebrations. Honestly, it’s hard not to like something that combines inkjet printing with chocolate and cake.
Eddie is available now and costs £2,206+VAT with the ink costing £102 per cartridge. It comes with Primera’s BarTender Designer software for Windows PCs though it will work with other design programs, and Eddie can also be run from a Mac. You can find further details at primera.com.
…with a little help from my friends
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