Short answer: Grade 1 for anything that touches food, Grade 2 when the part needs to hold more load, Grade 5 when it is a tool rather than a vessel. They are all "pure titanium" in the loose sense buyers use, and they are not interchangeable in a specification.
The short answer: Grade 1 for food, Grade 5 for tools
Grade 1 and Grade 2 are both commercially pure titanium; the difference is the oxygen and iron content, which controls strength and formability. Lower interstitial content means softer, more formable, more corrosion-resistant - which is exactly what a bowl, cup or fork needs.
Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V) adds aluminium and vanadium and roughly doubles the strength. It is the right choice for a spork that has to survive being used as a pry bar, and the wrong choice for a vessel that has to be deep-drawn into a thin wall.
In this catalogue the food-contact range is Grade 1 throughout, which is why 410 of 503 highlight blocks state food-safe or Grade 1 titanium rather than leaving it to the buyer to assume.
Softness is a feature, not a flaw
A Grade 1 sheet can be pressed into a bowl with a rolled rim without cracking, and the rim can then be thinned and smoothed. That is how a 450 ml bowl reaches 76 g at a 125 mm diameter while still holding its shape in a pack.
Grade 2 pushes back a little more, which is useful when a part has to resist denting - a pot base, a stake, a bracket. The trade is that the same wall thickness is harder to form into tight radii.
Buyers sometimes read "soft" as "cheap". In titanium it reads as "thin and light without cracking", which is the entire commercial proposition of the category.
Corrosion, taste and a simple compliance story
Both grades passivate the same way and neither needs a coating. 386 of 503 SKUs state rust-proof, 279 state no metallic taste, and none of them are relying on a liner to say it.
A single-grade range also simplifies compliance paperwork: one material declaration, one mill certificate format, one answer to a food-contact questionnaire, rather than a matrix of grades per SKU.
That is worth more than it sounds when a distributor asks for documentation across a 40-SKU order.
Three questions for your supplier
Which grade is this SKU, specifically? "Pure titanium" is not an answer; Grade 1 and Grade 2 have different mill certificates.
Can you send the mill certificate with the shipment? If the answer is "on request only", you will not have it when a customs or retail audit asks.
Where is Grade 5 used in your range, and why? A supplier who can explain the split - vessels in Grade 1, tools in Grade 5 - is a supplier who has thought about the product rather than about the price list.
Does the grade affect anodizing?
Yes, in appearance rather than in safety. Anodizing grows an oxide layer whose thickness sets the colour, and the alloy composition changes how evenly that layer forms. Two pieces of the same colour name from different grades can read slightly differently side by side.
This is one reason to keep a food range on a single grade if colour consistency matters across a set. 305 of the 503 SKUs here are anodized, and the colour consistency question comes up most often on multi-piece sets.
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