Cake glitter...a definitive answer please?

[cornishcreamtea]

For years I have been decorating my fairy cakes with a sprinkling of cake glitter. Then I read this week that a supplier has been fined £13000 for misleading customers by stating the glitter was edible and yet was made from coloured plastic! I checked my cupboard and oh no it was the glitter in question. Have I slowly been poisoning my family?

It would appear there is a lot of confusion between the meanings of "non toxic" and "not edible". Apparently the majority of glitter will say it is non toxic so that we will think it is edible but I still would not choose to give it to my family it if I had known it was really plastic shavings.

Even today at nursery when the children were given a cupcake as a treat they were sprinkled with glitter. ( the cakes not the children!) Bearing in mind what I had just discovered I mentioned it to the nursery leader but was just told in a very brusque manner that they had been made by a professional cake maker so there would not be a problem.

Any food technology experts who can give me a definitive answer please?
Is any glitter actually edible?

[hanette]

Yikes! No answer from me but marking my place in case a food technologist turns up!

[cornishcreamtea]

Anybody please?

[moonbells]

I read the article too. I can't answer whether any is properly edible, sadly. Saw some cupcakes last night in a bakery that were all glittery too. I had a pot of glitter from the firm in question, and ditched it. Used to make fabulous snowflakes, but I do seem to remember once being told not to put it on anything that was going to be eaten.

Non-toxic vs edible are two different things. Edible usually implies to me that there is some nutritional value, whereas non-toxic means it won't kill you but it's not really food. Use the example of a Lego brick - it's non-toxic but I certainly wouldn't call it edible!

Tricky one.

[Shimmyshimmy]

I avoid glitter due to this issue, I don't use it in my baking and I don't encourage the dcs to eat glittery food. That's not to say it's dangerous, I'm just not convinced it's safe and given it doesn't add to flavour I just don't see the need.

[cornishcreamtea]

Thanks all. Looks like we are going to have glitter free cakes in our house from now on.

[Viviennemary]

I did read an article. It put me off eating cakes with glitter. I don't bake but if I did I wouldn't be using any of these decorations till things were clarified.

[Squiglettsmummy2bx]

I did see some glitter in tk max that was labelled as edible glitter rather than non toxic so would presume that is fine to use on food?

[DrSeuss]

www.lindyscakes.co.uk/2011/08/08/making-edible-metallic-glitter-a-recipe/

[LittleprincessinGOLDrocks]

I tend to use the Dr Oetker gold or silver spray. It gives a lovely sparkle to the cake and it is edible. HTH

[cornishcreamtea]

Have just had a good look at the Lindyscakes site. Really helpful and again thanks all.

[firesidechat]

The glitter is non toxic, so basically it just goes straight through you. So strictly speaking it's not edible, but it won't do you any harm either.

You can get a different type of sparkle that is edible, but I don't think it's as pretty.

[LizzieMint]

You can get fully edible glitter but it's much much more subtle than the one you are talking about. The problem with EdAble art glitter is that they've been lying about it being edible when it's not, there have always been glitters for sale correctly marked as non-toxic but places like Hobbycraft sell them in the cake decorating aisle so a lot of people have been using them without reading the labels.
I have a cake business and obviously according to the EHOs I can't sell cakes with non-edible decorations unless they are made to be removed - I just don't use non-edible decorations at all.

[Seminyak]

Rainbow Dust edible range is edible, Rainbow Dust sparkle range is not (I emailed them yesterday about it). Am avoiding EdAble Art from now on!

Emailed one email seller today who was selling the Sparkle range as edible and they were grateful for the heads up. But no way I'm gonna contact them all, this misrepresentation is sooooo widespread!!!

[Seminyak]

*one eBay seller

[cornishcreamtea]

Just catching up on the later answers. As you say seminyak the misrepresentation is so widespread I am just not going to use any glitter in future rather than risk feeding my DCs little pieces of plastic!