On food network cake challenges alot of the people use plastic tubes to pour sugar into, and use PVC pipes for support and other things. I have have read a lot of posts on here about not using certain things. So my question is if PVC and plastic tubing is not food safe then how are these people using them. Also I have seen on Amazing wedding cakes some of them sticking flowers on wire wrapped in floral tape right into the cake. I guess I am just confused if it's not food safe then why these professional cake people do it?

PVC is food safe, that's why they use it. It's what your water comes through. My guess about the poured sugar is that they are using silicone; also food safe.

PVC pipe is rigid, so it doesn't contain the phthalates (a softener) that is considered a health risk. It is food safe.

As for the heavy vinyl tubing used with the poured sugar--the clear, thick walled tubes that are cut away from the formed pieces of sugar--no, they are technically NOT food safe. They're pliable, so they contain phthalates.

That said, no one can actually eat those thick, massive tubes of sugar or isomalt and the pieces are generally accepted as being for "decoration only", so using something considered non-toxic (the vinyl tubes) is OK.

HTH
Rae

They do use vinyl but a lot of the flexible stuff is silicone which is supposed to be food safe.

Often vinyl is used as the layer underneath the whole piece being poured because it (geez I can't remember now) releases better and doesn't wrinkle--that's what it is--it eliminates the wrinkle factor which would leave a mark on the sugar. Yes that's what it is vinyl stays smooth under there.

Also, nobody eats the cakes from the challenges.

The clear tubing that I'm talking about isn't silicone.

Silicone and/or latex tubing aren't clear and they're much more expensive than vinyl, especially given that in order to extricate the sugar--or chocolate--you need to cut away the tubing, destroying it.

The clear vinyl sheeting that you can pour sugar on is a very heavy mil, so it's also very expensive. You have to put a piece of parchment under it when you pour hot sugar on it because otherwise, the hot vinyl will stick badly to the counter surface under it.

I see that chefrubber.com claims that it's vinyl tubing is "food safe", and if it's the tubing used for water lines, then, yes, it is.

Rae

Gotcha. Yes that parchment underneath is key to prevent breakage so it doesn't stick? And the vinyl prevents the wrinkle? It's been a while since I dabbled with it.

You can get away with thin vinyl--because I was too frugal to pop for the pricey stuff. Glory that thick stuff is Xpensive!

There's a challenge on tv tonight and this pastry chef used gingerbread cookie dough to form her poured sugar snowflakes instead of so much money invested for making silicone molds. It worked!

It took her longer to clean the dough off but it worked. Geez why din it melt?

Chef Rubber sells food-safe vinyl tubing.

Theresa

Okay i do realize that no one eats the cakes from challenge. But what about on Amazing wedding cakes them sticking floral wrapped wires into the cake pretty sure that's not food safe and those cakes get eaten to. So i guess I am just wondering how do you go about and make sure that certain things are food safe and your not going to poison anyone. I know a cake decorator who goes to home improvement stores often for her supplies.

I know lots of cake decorators that go to the home improvement stores for cake tools. Most of them, including myself, are members here. I only shop for stainless steel tools, which are known to be food-safe.

Theresa