# Silver dragees



## jessiquina (Nov 4, 2005)

so i was looking to buy some silver dragees online and there is a note saying that they cannot be sold in california. why? i dont live in california, but i was wondering what the issue is, why are dragees so controversial. you can eat them right?


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

Some of them are inedible, and will say so right on the package. I didn't know they were outlawed though!!:suprise:


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## castironchef (Oct 10, 2005)

Here's the deal with silver dragees in California.

*Bay Area faces holidays without little silver balls on baked goods *

- Carol Ness, (San Francisco) Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 23, 2003

_CLARIFICATION: This story stated that stores such as Sur La Table were selling off their last remaining stocks of silver dragees, a pastry decoration. Sur La Table states that it originally removed the dragees from its stores in April 2003. Immediately after The Chronicle found in December that its Hanukkah decorations contained the dragees, it removed them as well, the retailer says._

Procrastinators are in for a shock when they set out to make those last-minute holiday cookies, cakes and gingerbread houses. Store shelves are almost bare of the beloved, tooth-crunching decorations called dragees -- better known as "those little silver balls.''

Because of a Napa lawyer's lawsuit alleging that the shimmery mini-orbs are toxic, stores such as Spun Sugar are selling off their last remaining stocks, and wholesalers and Internet suppliers simply won't sell sugar decorations filmed with silver, gold or copper to anyone in California.

"He's the Grinch that stole Christmas this year," said Gretchen Goehrend, owner of India Tree, a cake decorating wholesaler in Seattle who pulled all her dragees out of California after she was sued.

Already, India Tree has lost $20,000 by refusing to sell the silver balls in California because of the fear of being sued, says Goehrend.

Once again, California is on the cutting edge, the only place on the planet where using dragees could land you in court.

"I think it's a catastrophe. I think Christmas is going to have to come to an end. How can we decorate cookies without those silver balls?'' said Emily Luchetti, pastry chef at the Union Square restaurant Farallon.

The cookie-decorating party she throws at her house every year for family and friends was strangely dragee-free this year. During preparations for Sunday's festivities, Luchetti got a panicked call from her sister-in-law, who'd gone shopping for decorations at Cake Art in San Rafael and learned the news. "She said, 'We can't do this -- my daughter is going to be miserable.' "

Luchetti added, "How many (dragees) does one eat throughout the year? I can't believe there is anything that would hurt you -- if you ate a bazillion of them sure, but a few?"

But Napa lawyer Mark Pollock takes silver dragees very seriously. He started suing to force dragees off the California market when he was a Solano County prosecutor in the early 1990s, and got the spice giant McCormick to stop selling them in the state. Now an environmental lawyer in private practice, he sprang back into action last spring when dragees surged back into vogue after Martha Stewart used them on holiday cookies.

Pollock sued Stewart, gourmet food purveyor Dean and DeLuca, India Tree and about two dozen other distributors and retailers. As of Monday, Pollock said all but one had settled, agreeing to stop selling silver cake decorations in California, and the last was about to sign. Settlement amounts are confidential.

Potential risk

Pollock says his motivation wasn't that someone had been hurt by eating dragees -- he doesn't know that anyone has. But he says dragees have the potential to put consumers, especially children, at risk because silver is a toxic metal that can build up in the body over time and cause problems.

"Silver is a subtle poison," he said, comparing it to mercury in fish. "Eating dragees unnecessarily increases your body burden of this chemical. If children start off with heavy doses in Christmas cookies, they start out behind in the race."

While federal and state authorities list silver as toxic at certain levels -- for instance, for silver miners who breathe strong concentrations daily -- the Food and Drug Administration has dealt with dragees by declaring them non-edible and requiring jars to carry labels saying "for decoration only."

Pollock calls that "fraudulent and fictional" because everyone eats them anyway, especially kids.

Warning not enough

The attorney said he's also working with the state attorney general's office on litigation requiring markets to post warnings about mercury in fish. But he says a warning on dragee jars wouldn't be enough because the wording doesn't wind up on the cookies at the bake sale.

State health and toxic waste authorities said dragees weren't a concern as long as they were labeled properly.

"We are not aware of any health problems associated with this product," said Lea Brooks of the California Department of Health Services. "Levels of the metal are extremely low -- you'd have to consume massive quantities. We don't know how much."

Their potential as a hazardous waste would depend on large quantities ending up in a landfill, something authorities consider unlikely since they are expensive and are usable for years.

Retailers angry

Distributors and retailers said they've settled with Pollock not because they believe their dragees are toxic but because a trial would cost far more than settling. But, like Beryl Loveland of Beryl's Cake Decorating and Pastry Supplies of Virginia, they're angry and think a trial would have proven that there's nothing wrong with a few dragees now and then.

Locally, dragees disappeared from stores like Sur La Table almost immediately, and are dwindling fast at smaller shops.

At Spun Sugar, a candy- and cake-making specialty store in Berkeley, owner Linda Moreno is selling off the few sizes and shapes of the metallic decorations she has left, and says she can't get any more -- although she has no trouble getting the silver and gold leaf used in Indian sweets.

"It's the same stuff everyone's had for an eternity," she said. "I was always more worried about someone breaking a tooth."

Other bakers and baking supply shop owners were so leery of getting sued themselves that they spoke only on condition that their identities not be revealed. One baker said she's always brought back suitcases of dragees from France, and she won't stop. But she makes her customers sign a waiver that they understand they are for decorative purposes only.

Another baker, Nora Tong of San Francisco, who specializes in exquisitely decorated tea cookies, hadn't heard of the lawsuit because she also buys her dragees in France. She was aghast.

"Oh my god, people have been eating them for a hundred years. I will always buy them. I love dragees," said Tong, whose business is the wholesale Nora's Patisserie.

"It's too bad that we are all so fearful, and we are being terrorized by this," she said.

Chronicle staff reporter Anastasia Hendrix contributed to this report.E-mail Carol Ness at [email protected].

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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...NGS03SUEM1.DTL


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## aprilb (Feb 4, 2006)

Weyell....I suppose it would have been useful for their EXPERTS to ASK somebody that knows?

Like the EPA for instance? DEE DEE DEE! 

Ingested silver doesn't cause cancer. (gee I thought EVERYTHING caused cancer in California!) It has a different atomic weight than lead or mercury. HENCE it's NOT lead or mercury. Double Duh!

The worst problem over time and it takes quite a few GRAMS of silver to cause it is that it causes discoloration of the skin. Like it starts to develop a blue tinge. I think you would have to ingest pounds of silver dragees over the years to even have to think about worrying about it.

(All of this took me precisely 10 minutes to research on the internet.)

Gold on the other hand is completely inert. It has to be pure.
Copper, yes it is toxic. 

I do metalsmithing as well as being a chef so I've been around.

C'mon boys and girls, can you say AMBULANCE CHASER?
My uncle is a well renowned statistics professor and in our discussions emphasized that stats can be scewed in just about every way shape or form to prove anything you want.

I think that "lawyer" (and I use the term very loosely) just wanted some notariety and took off on the Martha Stewart thing. 

I think all the bakers in California should get together and file a class action suit for misrepresentation and loss of revenue due to not having little silver dragees for Christmas. 

Hey, I'm in So. Nevada and just over the border from LA. I could set up a little Dragee Running business...LOL.


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## jessiquina (Nov 4, 2005)

thanks....! they are so pretty tho!


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## coralee hire (Apr 28, 2012)

The reason is that before they used mercury in the silver finish ( but they dont any more) and in Californa they had a law suit agenest it, so its not alowed there any more.


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## prettycake (Dec 23, 2011)

I am from CA and I find this law idiotic,  just because someone broke their tooth and sued the company  who made them..  But they still sell them here..


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