Food-safe fabrics open a new door of possibilities for how fabrics can be used. We live in a world full of plastic and other non-biodegradable materials that are clogging our landfills and polluting our oceans. Food-safe fabrics are just one step we can take to protect our earth from even worse levels of waste.
When looking for new ways to help save the planet, food-safe fabrics can do a world of good. And as it turns out, there are multiple kinds of food-safe fabrics, ranging from burp cloths to sandwich bags to grocery shopping bags and everything in between.
Are you looking for food-safe fabric that’s absorbent? What about organic fabric? A wicking one? Something made of mesh? All of those options exist in eco-friendly fabrics that will make your life easier, keep your wallet fuller, and help Mother Nature.
Together we can save the planet!
1. Absorbent Food-Safe Fabrics
One of the top qualities that many individuals look for in a fabric – whether or not it is food safe – is absorbency. An absorbent material is designed to capture and hold any moisture and liquid that it comes in contact with, instead of allowing it to go through the material.
Absorbency is an essential component of a food-safe fabric that will store liquids, such as beverages, broths, or soups. An absorbent fabric is different from a hydrophobic or waterproof fabric.
Hydrophobic fabric causes liquid or moisture to bead up and roll off the fabric and is usually made using chemicals, which you don’t want in your product, so let’s skip these altogether.
Waterproof fabric absorbs liquid or moisture but doesn’t allow it to pass through the fabric. All three have excellent qualities that, when combined, make a fabric nearly unstoppable.
Of course, it makes sense to want an absorbent fabric that’s also food safe, especially if it comes in contact with food or someone’s mouth. Many materials contain harmful chemicals that can make you sick if those chemicals make their way into your body. Altogether avoiding those chemicals and toxins is your best bet.
Are you looking for a food-safe, absorbent material? You’ll definitely want premium-quality fabrics with food-safe features. Check out Zorb FoodSAFE Super Absorbent fabrics.
2. Organic Food-Safe Fabrics
The term “organic” is most often associated with food, but organic fabrics also exist. So, what exactly is an organic fabric? What sets it apart from non-organic materials?
First, organic fabrics are made with the least amount of environmental impact possible. Let’s look at organic cotton for a moment. It’s not the only organic, eco-friendly fabric, but it’s a great example.
Being organic starts with the cotton seeds, which are natural, untreated, and free of GMOs. Organic matter is used in the soil where the cotton seeds grow.
Once the cotton has grown, it’s harvested with natural defoliation, produced with non-toxic cornstarch, and whitened with safe peroxide. Because organic cotton is natural and non-toxic, it’s often a bio-based, biodegradable fabric.
On the other hand, non-organic cotton tends to make a more significant, negative impact on the environment. The cotton seeds are not organic, are often chemically treated, and contain GMOs. The soil where non-organic cotton grows isn’t treated with organic matter.
The harvesting, production, and whitening of non-organic cotton usually involve chemical treatments that include bleach and ammonia.
An organic food-safe fabric provides organic qualities while being safe for food. It’s a win-win. Check out ProECO FoodSAFE Organic Cotton fabrics for a premium-quality option.
3. Wicking Food-Safe Fabrics
A wicking fabric accomplishes two things. First, it moves moisture to the fabric’s outer surface, not allowing it to live inside it. This prevents bacteria and mold from growing on the fabric.
Second, it dries quickly, preventing moisture from saturating the fabric. Many wicking fabrics are hydrophobic, causing moisture or other liquid to bead up and roll off the fabric.
You have a few options for a wicking, food-safe fabric. Those options include cotton, jersey mesh, soft fleece, and interlock. It all depends on what you’ll be using the fabric for. Typically speaking, you can use a wicking fabric as an interlining layer for added protection or as the sole layer for use with foods such as milk, coffee, tea, stews, soups, or curries.
4. Sturdy Mesh Food-Safe Fabrics
Sturdy mesh is a unique, food-safe option that is great for baking or cooking. Food companies like Tyson Foods have used mesh in their cooking processes.
As an example, the multi-purpose mesh can be sewn into sleeves that go on cooking trays. Since these sleeves are food safe, it’s okay for food to repeatedly touch them. These sleeves eliminate using single-use ones used to remove food from ovens.
Sturdy mesh is highly durable, lasting for an entire year before needing replacement. Plus, it can withstand the heat of the kitchen – literally.
Of course, food-safe mesh fabric can be used for anything food-related you can think of; you’re not limited to using the fabric as cooking sleeves. Another eco-friendly option includes packaging food items in the mesh instead of using disposable, single-use wrappers.
For food-safe mesh fabric, we recommend FoodSAFE Sturdy Multipurpose Mesh.
Get Your Food-Safe Fabrics from Wazoodle Fabrics.
Fabrics are instrumental in reducing our carbon footprint. Food-safe fabrics prevent harmful chemicals and toxic finishes from making their way into our food and our bodies. Keeping us healthy is just as important as keeping the environment safe.
That’s why Wazoodle Fabrics offers so many food-safe fabric options. We want to ensure our customers have as many options as possible to best suit their needs. We can all do our part to save the environment by making small, everyday changes.
Shop our collection of FoodSAFE fabrics, and contact us if you have any questions regarding any of our products. Wazoodle Fabrics has everything you need, including 4x4 swatch kits you can order to find the right fabric before ordering yards or rolls.
The Role of Custom Kitchen Textiles in Food Safety
For all those worried, not only about the hygene in the kitchen, but also in cooking safely and calmly, we inform that there are kitchen textiles tailored with permanent flame retardant fabric in the market.
When kitchen works are done, we use garmets that protect us from:
- Dirt.
- Grease or other liquids splashes.
- Spill of and/or food drops.
So it is common to buy:
- Bib-apron or short apron.
- Cloths or kitchen towels.
- Mittens...
To use it as textile complement of the kitchen clothing, both in a restaurant's kitchen and in a house's kitchen.
For all those worried, not only about the hygene in the kitchen, but also in cooking safely and calmly, in the market there are kitchen textiles tailored with permanent flame retardant fabric, that will protect you from sparks and any hot flame that could appear while cooking.
The ideal is that the flame retardant fabric used for the confection of these products, meets the European regulation of comfortable protection against heat and fire EN ISO . The flame retardant properties of these fabrics could be achieved either by treatments of flame retardant layers added to the fabric or because when weaving flame retardant fibers are used giving the fabric a permanent flame retardant property, achieving that it admits industrial washing cycles up to 60ºC, in order to wash completely its dirt and at the same time keeping its flame retardant properties inherent with time.
As we all know, a bib-apron for cook is the garment that protects clothers and body from grease, sauces, flour or any particle of dirt dropped when cooking. The kitchen cloth, also known as kitchen towe, is usually placed close to the stove or hanged in the handle of the oven's door, using it typically to dry hands or dishes and remove hot kitchen utensils from the stove when used in a domestic kitchen, while in the professional hospitality industry, its main function is the drying of dishes.
Sometimes, the professional cook uses to fold it and use it in a rectangular shape as a kind of grip or mitten to withdraw trays from ovens, handle or take hot pots. For this last application, we could buy siliconised mittens, grips, etc. A garment which has become very trendy, not only in the catering and hospitality industries, but also as a safety element to put over the head when barbecuing, is the cook bandana in pirate style, which is adjusted in its back side with two knotted strips, creating an optimal clamping because it carries the hair in a very optimal way and avoids that sweat falls over the food.
If we add the flame retardant property to all these garments, we will be using the most technical kitchen textiles. In Texfire, you will find a range of flame retardant textiles as well as kitchen clothing accesories, which is called technical kitchen range and includes:
- Technical heat isolator apron
- Short technical flame retardant apron
- Technical flame retardant kitchen cloth
- Technical flame retardant bandana
- Technical flame retardant dish-mitt, a kitchen cloth with a very peculiar design that has a double function, as kitchen cloth and kitchen mitten.
All these kitchen garments have stain repellant, absorbent properties and they are also tailored with permanent flame retardant fabric, giving an added value to each article, because it protects us not only from its typical use but also against fire and flames.
