3D Printing

Others can correct me if I'm wrong, but PLA the plastic itself is food safe. As in, you can put it in your mouth and it's fine. The issue comes from the 3d printing process which tends to create small pockets and porous surfaces where microbes can hide and grow once it gets wet, kind of like a sponge. So you could print a single-use fork and eat with it, but don't reuse it later.

I think an insert for cutlery would be fine since you aren't going to be getting it wet or putting it in contact with your mouth or food.

Brass nozzles also have trace amounts of lead in them. It's a miniscule amount but if you're going for absolute food safety you may consider a steel nozzle.

It's possible to smoothe PLA by exposing it to ethyl acetate (or get a spool of PVB—prints at about the same settings as PLA and smoothes with isopropyl alcohol). As others have already said though, this is probably not needed for a cutlery storage drawer insert, unless you're in the habit of putting your cutlery away dirty.

You could coat it with a food safe epoxy or clear coat.

There are definitely a few potential options, I think! Mostly experimental ones though, so no guarantees that they actually work lol. For example:

• Sinter it. Basically print at 100% infill, completely pack it in salt/sand/etc, and heat it in a kiln/oven/etc. The plastic will (hopefully) remelt and solidify without all the pockets inside.
• Seal it with something foodsafe and nonpermeable, some kind of varnish or lacquer, even electroplating maybe. The pockets will still be in there but nothing will be able to get into them.
• Use the 3d print for lost PLA casting instead, essentially replacing it with something else like metal.

Gotta find some food safe epoxy or something similar to wipe along the layer lines so it’s fully sealed.