Little Silver Balls

Now that my little girls are starting to “come of age” for decorating cookies, I set out to buy some little silver balls (otherwise known as dragees) for decorating some snowflake and ice skate cookies this year. I just dream of creating some pretty cookies with pastel icing and those little silver balls that we grew up with as accents, even if I have to stay up late doing it myself. Couldn’t find those balls anywhere, and since I needed to order ice skate, mitten and snowflake cookie cutters, I turned to online sources. Well, it turns out some Napa environmental lawyer started sueing companies that sold dragees (otherwise known as little silver balls) in California, these companies mostly settled out of court, so now nobody sells them for fear of legal action. What a shame. I had no idea they were toxic to eat. I just like the way they look. I wouldn’t be opposed to scraping them off!

I found this disclaimer on Sugarcraft.com (the site I ordered the cookie cutters on)…

DRAGEES ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR DISTRIBUTION OR SALE IN THE STATES OF: CALIFORNIA, TEXAS, COLORADO, NEW JERSEY, ARIZONA, FLORIDA Please check with your local applicable state agencies to ascertain the regulations pertaining to your specific state before purchasing. If any purchase is made illegally, you may be prosecuted to the full extent of your state laws. We will not ship even though you order these if it is illegal for you to get them.

And this from one of their customers:
Opinion from Jennifer (a customer): In the US, all dragees are considered non-edible and for decoration only by the FDA, for the last 10-15 years I think. This is because even though they are primarily made of sugar, they contain minute quantities of heavy metals, usually silver, which are considered inedible. However, in many other countries they are considered edible, and many people do use them on confections and do eat them with no ill effects. I have eaten them and personally don't consider it a big deal. However, for customers, I always tell them they are non-toxic, but considered an inedible decoration which should be removed. Plus those things are awfully hard, and I worry more about someone chipping a tooth than anything else!
Every site I found the silver dragees on were unable to ship to California. Wow, what a big deal. My conclusion: only Californians are unable to decide for themselves whether to use silver dragees as decorations on their cakes and cookies.