Most paintballs are made of non-toxic food-grade ingredients such as food coloring and water.
This means that they are completely harmless to people and most of the ingredients used to make paintballs are even edible. Though from what I heard it tastes horrible, not that I would advise eating paintball for any reason.
Now why I stated most paintballs and not all paintballs, is that older paintballs made in the 1980s weren’t made to be as safe as modern paintballs also there are persistent myths of unsafe homemade paintballs.
My best advice on this is to stick with paintballs made from reputable brands that are well regulated by the government and with strict quality controls in place. Don’t worry I will leave you with three well-known paintball manufacturers and with links to purchase their paintballs that I use, later in the article.
What are Paintballs Made Of?
- Water is one of the main ingredients of paintball.
- Capsules are the outer layer of paintballs they act as bags containing the colorful liquids inside. The Capsules are made of gelatin which is used to make marshmallows and ice cream.
- Coloring Almost all modern paintballs use dyes/food coloring to add color to the paintball.
- Polyethylene Glycol this another component of liquid inside paintballs don’t let all the fancy jargon confuse you, polyethylene glycol isn’t a dangerous element it is even used in toothpaste and cough syrup.
To see how they make Paintball possible check the video below.
How to Spot Safe Paintballs?
The best Paintballs have several things in common;
- Made of Food Grade ingredients.
- They don’t have too much wax inside them. Low-grade paintballs are very cheap but they contain a high ratio of wax which makes washing much harder. You can read more on this in my article How to wash Paintball Stains
- Keep their structural integrity for a long period of time meaning they don’t break up until they are fired.
Are Paintballs Edible?
I in no way advocate eating paintballs. Paintballs weren’t manufactured to be eaten, even though they are usually made of food grade ingredients.
What Happens if you Eat a Paintball?
If you ingest paintballs it shouldn’t have any serious side effects though I need to stress paintballs aren’t made for consumption so I would advise that you don’t start binge eating paintballs.
Because paintballs have polyethylene glycol which is used as a laxative a possible side effect of ingesting paintballs is diarrhea.
If by some chance a child eats a large amount of paintball you might want to seek medical attention. Why because you don’t take chances with your little one’s safety.
The Best and Safest Nontoxic Paintball
Paintballs can come in two sizes
- 68. cal which is the standard paintball size used in most paintball guns.
The brand of paintball I recommend for the .68 cal is the Valken Infinity Paintballs click to see current Price on Amazon
- Now if you are using a Spring Powered Paintball gun like the JT Splatmaster which uses a smaller paintball the .50 cal.
I recommend the JT Splatmaster .50 Cal Biodegradable Low Impact Non-Toxic Paintball click to see the price on Amazon
To understand the types of Paintball Guns you can check out my article Best Paintball Guns for kids I discuss the types in detail.
Are Paintballs Biodegradable?
Because paintballs are usually made of food grade materials they can and will biodegrade or break down naturally after a while and will not affect the environment in a negative way.
How to take Care of Paintballs?
Paintball’s main enemy is High temperature which breaks down paintball causing it to melt or splatter prematurely. So I advise keeping paintball in a cool area away from sunlight or any heat source.
I hope this article has helped you to better understand paintballs.
