Paper Coffee Cups

There are a lot new Ripple cups emerging into the market at present, and some very competitively priced ones to boot.

The cost of making these products does not vary much from producer to producer, the cost of the right type of materials doesn't change either, factoring in economies of scale (purchasing power) will not change things a lot either, so how can there be massive differences in the cost price of Ripple Cups from one seller to another? Well, there is only really one way to reduce cost - use less expensive materials.

Unfortunately, the material some suppliers are compromising in order to reduce the cost of this product is the quality of the paper used.

Despite the the recycling efforts of late and green initiatives generally our beleaguered government sometimes get things right, in particular rules regarding goods which come into contact with foodstuffs. It is against the law for any product which comes into direct contact with foodstuffs to be made using recycled material for the simple reason that untreated paper (that may have once been lavatory roll for example) has the potential to make people ill if filled with hot liquid (such as coffee as toxins can migrate into the food. There is no way of checking what the recycled paper board was once used for - it could have contained anything and make people very ill.

All our Ripple Cups are made with food grade board and are sent for testing with PIRA (Printing Industry Research Association) who test the cups to make sure all the paper board used in their creation is food grade and the product is fit for purpose. Any trace of recycled material and the coffee cups would fail the test and will not be fit for purpose.

You might ask how firms can 'get away' with using or selling these cups without lawsuits etc? I suspect few of you reading this were aware that this could happen? Most people simply assume that organisations will check the quality of the Double Wall Cups used or sold by them. If you became ill after a cup of coffee would you look suspiciously at the paper cup, or wonder if the milk was off? I bet you would suspect the Paper Coffee Cup least of all.

Generally the only firms requesting food contact certificates to be delivered before delivery of Triple Wall Cups are the likes of KFC and the other large restaurants and coffee shops but any firm selling or using disposable cups should be asking for these certificates too. The first organisation to get sued will be the one without the correct documents.

To help you check if you may have unsuitable cups there is a check you can carry out yourself. Triple wall are also often described as 'triple layer cups' and there is one simple way to check if your ripple cups are produced using the correct board quality, and that is to tear the outer layer of the paper cup to reveal the hidden third layer of board.

Coffee Cups using unsuitable recycled board will be brown or grey, the proper legal board will normally be white.