I watched the recent wedding cake competition on FoodTV the other night (I think it was from last weekend - Marina Sousa won w/ her chocolate fondant cake), anyways - there was a decorator in the competition, who used pvc pipe for dowels (the white chocolate ganache w/ purple flowers)... anyways - I thought, what a great idea, and inexpensive... but then I though - there's ink of some kind on those pipes (numbers or something printed on the side) and I thought - should that be going in a cake?! 
Is that "food safe"? Does anyone out there use pvc? Thoughts?!
If you are using PVC piping, you should be using the pipe intended for water pipes, if your water can go through it, it would be okay for it to be touching a cake. I, too, saw the writing on the side of the pipe and yes i think that should have been cleaned off. I would think alittle alcahol would do the trick.
Have i used it, no, but would it work sure, why not.
DH used to be a plumber and they make a pvc cleaner that's used to get the writing off. I wouldn't imagine this would be good to eat though, you'd have to wash it off really really well!
I just thought it was odd, that a "professional" cake decorator would use it with the writing/ink on - and potentially serve this at someones wedding...?!
I don't know about PVC pipes, but I found online (sugarcraft.com) that they use straws for dowels. I emailed them and asked if that was really sturdy and she said "ever put your hand on the top of a straw and try to bend it?" Made since and I used them for my first stacked cake. Worked well. And CHEAP. 250 straws for $2 
Seriously - straws?!?! I use wood or the plastic Wilton ones... but just recently purchased the "stress free" supports - due to an "accident" with a recent cake, and wood dowels... Can't wait to use them!
I read somewhere that straws could be used, and started using them. I sometime use a combination of straw and skewers. It just depends on what "feels" right. Sometimes, I will insert a skewer into the straw until it pierces the 1/2 to 1 inch thick gator baord base and cut it level with the top of the straw. It's a lot easier that trying to cut wooden dowels. My structures are very sturdy.
Recently for a competition I used this idea to prep a foundation cake that was more of a light custard cake. The foundation cake needed to support additional structures and survive a 10 mile precarious ride to the site. The cake arrived in perfect condition. Still on occasion, if I have sculpted a design that is top heavy, I will use wooden dowels.
Hope my explaination made sense.
The additional ingredients used in the manufacture of the PVC makes it non-food safe. Each country has different formulae for the PVC: so safety could depend upon location...
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-6659-pvc.html
Even though I use PVC to roll out sugarpaste, I would not leave it in cake, to support either stacked or tiered, for any length of time. Food-grade plastic [straws or cake supplier's plastic dowels] would be preferable along with butcher's skewers.
I would not use wood or manufactured wood dowels purchased from hardware store either. You do not know where they have come from, what exact wood they are made from, where they were stored etc, MDF, of course, contains formaldehyde ....butcher's hardwood skewers are made for the food industry and are completely safe.
just my humble opinion, but: nothing we're putting into cakes to dowel them is going to be there long enough to do any harm unless you're considering using lead spikes that have been dipped into rat poison or something.
I'd honestly be more worried about using boxed cake mixes then I would about using a wood dowel I don't know the source of or the lettering on a PVC pipe. The water you're adding to your cake likely passes through a PVC pipe at some point, anyway.
To each his own, but I think people get way too worked up about this kind of stuff.
Just an added note.
The cakes used in that competition (i didn't see it) were probably for presentation and nothing to do with eating. Or did they have a taste test too?
So if it was just for presentation, they could use anything they wanted, just to make sure it was very sturdy.
Yes the cake had to taste good because one of them was going to be the wedding cake served at the wedding they had shortly after.
jmt1714
You are so funny! I am still giggling about the lead spike and rat poison...Yup I totally agree with what you said! Still giggling!
I used the wilton plastic dowels for the first time last weekend, and i LOVE them! They are very sturdy and you use less than you would wooden dowels.
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