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Many printing ink manufacturers have switched to more environmentally friendly inks in recent years. Additionally, printing on food demands nearly the same level of care. Also, flexible smart ink aids in protecting the content from microbes and offers information on the content’s freshness.

The goal of this research is to develop a novel formulation based on natural resources to be printed on food. For food printing using the screen method, certain organic binders including starch, sodium alginate and Arabic gum as well as natural colors like red beet, black barberry and beetroot were used. To establish the formulation suitable for screen printing, rheological parameters were examined. In addition, to assess the color of the printed inks over 48 h period, samples underwent optical stability testing.

The tape test showed that all inks exhibit good adhesive characteristics. The outcomes demonstrated that cochineal has the highest optical stability among the dyes. Alginates and starch have greater rheological qualities than Arabic gum ink, another reason why it is not a viable choice for screen printing. The duration of color ink relative to time shows the appropriate possibility of using this ink as a sensor.

In general, the substance containing sodium alginate and starch as concentrator and beetroot as dye showed the optimum properties for food printing in this study.