Suggestion for oil/grease-resistant paper for fortune cookie messages?

[fredericdenis]

Hello all,

I'm hopeful to connect here with someone who is knowledgeable in papers, especially food-safe papers, because my researches so far are not really helpful :

• Producers of food-safe papers won't waste much time on you if you're not a potential buyer of a truckload of paper;
• Print shops specialized in food packaging want to sell you their print services, not so much their substrates and knowledge.

(I understand, sales rule #1 is to focus on your A customers, and I'm not an A customer for either of them).


The thing is, I've been making artisan, high-end, customized fortune cookies for a little while now, and I've run into the problem where the paper I've been using is absorbing the grease of the cookies. This is not that much of a problem for single-sided messages, but it is a huge problem for double-sided messages: the paper becomes translucent, and that makes the messages unreadable if they "overlap".

Does anybody would happen to know what type of paper industrial fortune cookie makers use for their messages? Are the messages simply printed on the substrate, or is there some sort of coating applied thereafter?

Would anyone have a recommendation for a food-safe (i.e. certified FDA Direct Food Contact) paper, oil/grease/water resistant, recyclable and/or biodegradable/compostable, available in 75 g/sm or a tad less, that would not be translucent, and that might be printable with an inkjet printer?


Looking forward to reading your comments and ideas,

 

[stratman]

In my very brief reading on Google, fortune cookies may use an edible paper with edible ink. This would require a dedicated printer, one that has never had traditional ink run through it. There are also pens with edible ink you can use to write and draw.

Very interesting web site for those looking to print edibles or have them made for you:

https://inkedibles.com/

Pretty much everything else I read made no mention of edible paper and ink. I guessing they used plain paper and a pen or a printer with regular ink.

Here is a place to buy either pre-printed fortune paper slips or customize them. Not exactly what you're asking about but may be useful.

https://www.kcfortunecookiefactory.com/product/fortune-cookie-slips/


Could your cookie recipe be tweaked to have less oil/butter so less likely to stain the paper?


FYI: You can still get clogs using edible ink, just like with traditional inks.

https://blog.inkedibles.com/edible-ink-cartridges/can-edible-ink-cause-clogs-at-the-print-heads.html

 

[fredericdenis]

Thank you Stratman,

Yes, I saw inkedibles.com in the past, though I originally got my inks from Colorcon and lately from icinginks.com (smaller quantities available vs Colorcon, and excellent service). And your suggestion of a dedicated printer is exactly what I did, filled with edible ink since day one and only with since.

I confirm you can get clogs with edible inks! Worked a few times at cleaning the print head already.

I sent a request to kcfortunecookiefactory.com already (~3 weeks ago actually), and have yet to hear back from them. Wanted to confirm their paper was grease/oil resistant.

Changing the recipe is a possible scenario. But before I do, I'll have messages from an industrial manufacturer analyzed by a lab in Montreal city, to see if I can at least reverse engineer that thing if I can find the secret here on Internet.

Thanks anyway for your time researching this, it's appreciated!

 

[stratman]

Great feedback. Thank you.

I don't recall discussing fortune cookie slips before. We have had the rare post about edible inks, such as for cakes. Interesting stuff.

Our resident Moderator @The Hat is a regular Delphi Oracle on matters printing. Don't know what he knows about the specialty of fortune cookie slips but he might surprise us.

I confirm you can get clogs with edible inks! Worked a few times at cleaning the print head already.

What printer are you using?

 

[The Hat]

Would anyone have a recommendation for a food-safe (i.e. certified FDA Direct Food Contact) paper

All papers will soak up oil or grease from your cookies, so what you need is photo glossy paper, yes it will absorb some oil but will always remain readable, but its only one sided..

 

[fredericdenis]

What printer are you using?

Canon Pixma G3200. Can't print on heavy cardstock (would have been great for another project) but has been working fine for almost two years now.

Thank you again @stratman for your interest and all comments.

 

[fredericdenis]

Thank you @The Hat ,

I don't know if there is any glossy photo paper manufacturer that went through FDA certification for Direct Food Contact, but I'll check. I could also work with a lab to certify it, I guess. But that's more $$$.

I did search for C/2S papers, but what I've found so far was too thick. With regular copier paper, 75 g/sm is ok for normal height messages; for double-height folded messages, a thiner paper would make folding easier.

Another options I'm considering if a paper can't be found is to do a two-step process : print, then coat (wax, or some other FDA DFC coatings). But that again is more $$$, in equipment and testing time.

Nothing is easy, it seems.

 

[The Hat]

Another options I'm considering if a paper can't be found is to do a two-step process : print, then coat

The most obvious thing to do would be to print as you normally do on your own paper stock and just pop the folded paper into a small sealed plastic bag..

 

[fredericdenis]

@The Hat
For sure, that would prevent contact with the grease of the cookie
And people certainly would remember the fortune cookies with the messages inside a plastic bag.

I'll let you guys know what if I find anything...

 

[CreativeMess]

I am not entirely certain of the following suggestion but have you tried white freezer paper? Past experience is that the light weight stuff is too flimsy to run through a printer by itself but as 2 layers heated together(ironed) it works fine and the coating on the paper is food safe also keeping bleeding from going through. Put the coated sides together.
This is only a suggestion, might be worth a try.