Food Contact Safe Coating & Application Method

[Guybeard]

Hi all,

I am about to start producing a range of cast iron salt & pepper mills for sale online. The design was inspired from a 1960's Robert Welch pepper mill that I inherited from my grandparents.

I would greatly appreciate any help with selecting a coating that is suitable for direct food contact to coat the inside of the mills and any advice on the application method that would be suitable. Ideally the coating chosen would be certified for use in Europe, America, Australia, Canada and other countries also.

My preferred design the mill body is cast in one piece but I think this will be quite hard to coat the internal void? I have drawn up a second design where there is a removable base plate in the bottom to allow access to the inside (see attached cross section drawings). I would prefer to avoid the second option as this will add machining and assembly operations. I guess it will come down to which costs more.

Any help appreciate - Thanks all!

 

[TugboatEng]

What do you expect the coating to do? Cast iron cookware is typically coated in vegetable oil and then baked at high temperature. Vegetable oil has alkyds much like alkyd enamel paint.

 

[btrueblood]

Whatever coating you pick will have to stand up to the abrasion of peppercorn chunks and salt...tough call.

What's wrong with seasoned cast iron as Tugboat suggests, or bare iron on the internals with whatever cosmetic coating you want on the outside?

Alternatively, have you looked at having the castings done in a stainless steel, or Nickel/Chrome cast iron, either of which will tend to be rust free in use.

 

[GGedge]

Cast Iron cookware, for example Le Creuset, have an enamel coating usually in quite bright colours. Might be worth considering accepting salt and pepper pots and not going to actually go on the cooker it might match expectations of the customer.

CHeers

Graham Gedge

 

[epoxybot]

Assuming you want to present them with a uniformly black surface, perhaps you should be talking to a Blackening service company or to Blackening suppliers for your own production line. Hot Blackening is probably the method you might pursue.

 

[TugboatEng]

There is also electroless nickel plating that is available in black.