But it's "All Natural and Non-Toxic" (Bakeries poisoning kids)

[Zorba]

Children poisoned by birthday cake decorations loaded with lead, copper

Some cake "luster dusts" are safe to eat—others are definitely not.

arstechnica.com

In the never-ending quest to have the best looking birthday cake for Instagram, bakeries are apparently turning to metallic colors. Some of these colorings are 25% lead!

First off, why is lead based pigment allowed to be sold at all, lead based paint has been banned since 1978? Then to be sold with "Non-Toxic" labeling is even more insane.

The FDA/FTC should be regulating all product labeling, especially apparently BS terms like "Non-Toxic" and "all natural."

Also stay away from any metallic colorings on food, more than likely there is some metal in it giving it that shimmer.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

But they weren't gay kids right? Cause THAT might be an issue if they got cakes...

 

[mindless1]

Hopefully these are isolated incidents of incompetence, but in this day and age I find it hard to believe anyone didn't realize lead was toxic. Then again the ignorance of youth sometimes blows my mind.

I'd imagine there's already some regulation disallowing the lead but a regulation is only the first step in catching offenders.

 

[pauldun170]

So glad our household is passed that phase of moms competing with each other over how extravagant their kids parties are.
These overkill cakes are part that nonsense.

"I took me 2 days to create this cake!!!"
- Discretely walks over to garbage can and dumps "Majestic" cake that taste like shit and baked by "oh you're so talented" whose entire goal was to flood instagram with cake pics.

 

[UNCjigga]

Indian people have been doing this for hundreds of years (putting gold leaf and silver leaf on desserts.) I wouldn’t trust they’re 100% non-toxic either, but it’s been going on long enough that we’d have known about any health effects but now. Why wouldn’t regular bakeries use the same method??

Vark - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[pauldun170]

Indian people have been doing this for hundreds of years (putting gold leaf and silver leaf on desserts.) I wouldn’t trust they’re 100% non-toxic either, but it’s been going on long enough that we’d have known about any health effects but now. Why wouldn’t regular bakeries use the same method??

I can't help but picturing the scenario of someone getting these ingredients from Amazon.
(Based on knowing people that got into "fauncy bakin")
"Reviews look good, worth a shot. Now I need to find something else to get my order over $25"

Amatuers who skim labels

The cake had been baked, frozen, and frosted; luster dust was added to a butter extract and painted on the cake with a brush in intervals to produce a thick layer. The luster dust applied as a decoration to the cake’s frosting was labeled as rose gold dust, and marked as “nonedible,” “nontoxic,” and “for decoration only.”

 

[interchange]

Indian people have been doing this for hundreds of years (putting gold leaf and silver leaf on desserts.) I wouldn’t trust they’re 100% non-toxic either, but it’s been going on long enough that we’d have known about any health effects but now. Why wouldn’t regular bakeries use the same method??

Vark - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Pure gold and silver in their metallic form are non-toxic if eaten and will not cause heavy metal poisoning with any rational level of ingestion.

The issue here is labeling non-toxic when considering appropriate use and anticipated level of exposure and thinking that means edible which would be a much different exposure.

Personally, I'm not going to be buying any luster dusted cakes for the kids.

 

[quikah]

There is all this dusting powder available on amazon that has these vague descriptions, "For Decoration", but doesn't say anything about it being edible. No ingredient list. Stuff needs way better labeling or outright banning IMO.

 

[herm0016]

my wife is a former professional cake decorator, and we still do lots of them for family and friends.
"luster dust" has been this way for decades. It is usually used very sparingly for a little flourish. coating an entire cake is crazy. also, major brands like Wilton have not sold the non-edibile stuff for a while.
we only use brand name stuff, and its very expensive compared to that, because that much of the wilton would be like 60 bucks, .05 oz is 6 bucks or so.

That cake looks pretty amateur, I would venture to guess its not a very "professional" operation.

also, hating on people that like to make pretty cakes is a bit much. we have spent up to maybe 75 hours on a single cake from making all the components, decorating, etc.

it was the best baked good I had ever eaten. if you think every fancy looking cake is box mix, you are totally wrong.

 

[Zorba]

Hopefully these are isolated incidents of incompetence, but in this day and age I find it hard to believe anyone didn't realize lead was toxic. Then again the ignorance of youth sometimes blows my mind.

I'd imagine there's already some regulation disallowing the lead but a regulation is only the first step in catching offenders.

Sounds like the end consumers had no idea what was in the product because it wasn't actually labelled as "Contains lead," just "Non-Toxic." Which lead in any quantity should never be labelled non-toxic.

 

[Justinus]

my wife is a former professional cake decorator, and we still do lots of them for family and friends.
"luster dust" has been this way for decades. It is usually used very sparingly for a little flourish. coating an entire cake is crazy. also, major brands like Wilton have not sold the non-edibile stuff for a while.
we only use brand name stuff, and its very expensive compared to that, because that much of the wilton would be like 60 bucks, .05 oz is 6 bucks or so.

That cake looks pretty amateur, I would venture to guess its not a very "professional" operation.

also, hating on people that like to make pretty cakes is a bit much. we have spent up to maybe 75 hours on a single cake from making all the components, decorating, etc.

it was the best baked good I had ever eaten. if you think every fancy looking cake is box mix, you are totally wrong.

I imagine all that copper probably didn't make the cake taste very good.

 

[pmv]

Indian people have been doing this for hundreds of years (putting gold leaf and silver leaf on desserts.) I wouldn’t trust they’re 100% non-toxic either, but it’s been going on long enough that we’d have known about any health effects but now. Why wouldn’t regular bakeries use the same method??

Vark - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Not that I'm any expert (and haven't even bothered to google the question!) but I had the impression that gold (if it is actually gold) was not toxic. Not sure about silver, though I thought it had anti-bacterial properties? Certainly very different thing to lead.

There goes my 'glow in the dark' radium-cake-decorating business, though.

I'm still miffed about the quantitiy of lead I must have breathed in growing up living over a busy city street back when they still added it to petrol. Apparently that stuff gets locked into your bones, then when you get older it starts to leak out and poisons you all over again.

 

[Moonbeam]

I suppose that for any object that one may desire to possess for whatever positive or negative reason, there will be those who will try to fill that desire for loving or selfish reasons.

 

[hal2kilo]

I can't help but picturing the scenario of someone getting these ingredients from Amazon.
(Based on knowing people that got into "fauncy bakin")
"Reviews look good, worth a shot. Now I need to find something else to get my order over $25"

Amatuers who skim labels

Hey, I resemble that remark. Just ran to Costco yesterday to pick up my big red 6.5 quart Kitchen Aide mixer. $100 off.