I thought Disco Dust is not edible.... - Page 2

No--Wilton is very conscious of items needing to be edible. Their shimmer dust is edible--as are the very tiny vials of shaped, shiny hearts & stars that come in gold, silver, and pink.

I'll take the bait on the hi ratio shortening:
It's vegetable based, it's edible, it's food safe, it's FDA approved, it's a food product, and like everything else "fat" based, it's best used & eaten in moderation. DISCO DUST IS NONE OF THESE. PERIOD.

Rae

Haha I was just saying, inappropriately shifting the focus and hijacking the thread is what I do. Don't worry bout it. Relax!

I take the smallest pinch of disco dust and sprinkle over an entire cake. I have diverticulosis and my sister in law has Crohns. We have both consumed cakes with a sprinkling of the stuff on it and not only survived but did not suffer any resulting problems. I'd be more concerned about what's flying around and landing on a cake that's outdoors rather than panicking about ingesting a TINY bit of disco dust on a cupcake!

That's great, but others might not be so lucky--and, those others need to be fully informed that they're eating plastic particles deliberately sprinkled on food.

I really doubt that the bakery in the video has a disclaimer on public display (in large enough print to actually read) that says:
"The sparkle on your cupcakes is fine grain, non-toxic BUT inedible plastic glitter. Consume at your own risk OR remove buttercream before eating."
Might negatively impact sales, I guess.............

We all ingest dust and other flotsam in the air every day--and survive (some with more discomfort than others, though). We can only control what we can control.

My control doesn't reach as far as the ambient breezes, but it does reach as far as the ingredients that I knowingly use--and edible (gum arabic) cake sparkles will just have to do.

JMHO
Rae

I tell all my customers that the glitter is not edible as such, but is non-toxic and I've never had a single customer say 'oh no, I don't want glitter'. As far as I am concerned if the customer is aware of the fact then let people do what they want. I personally would rather eat a cupcake with glitter on it than a cupcake with frosting made with shortening.

Well, sadly, a lot of people don't know how to distinguish between "not edible" and "non-toxic". I bet if you told them that it was, indeed, fine grain plastic craft glitter--like that used in scrapbooking--they might think twice and decline.

I certainly know that if someone told me that they'd be sprinkling plastic granules on my food that I'd tell them that they'd better not do it........

At least I know that shortening will ...........glide........thru my system. I have no idea where little plastic particles--that can't be digested/broken down EVER-- might collect.........so many nooks and crannies to lurk in (I've seen my DH's colonoscopy photos )..........

JMHO
Rae

Thanks Rae

Shortening doesn't just glide through the system....well I suppose if we are just looking at physically how something passes through your body, then yes gliding might be accurate, but the long term health risks associated with eating hydrogenated vegetable fat is nothing to be scoffed at. Personally I am concerned with how food effects my body and not simply how it travels from my mouth to my derrière.
I'm sure if you explained (assuming you use shortening) the facts about hydrogenated fats to your customers, they would likely not want to eat it either, but I doubt that information is imparted at consultations.

We're all exposed to trans fats/hydrogenated fats virtually every day. It's a subject well covered by the media & medical professionals. It's "transparent" to anyone with a TV, internet, etc.
NOT SO with eating plastic glitter on one's food. It's a "secret" that isn't even widely acknowledged by many cake decorators!

I do NOT discuss the "health effects" of the icings that I use . I offer both butter based and shortening based versions. I use the butter based icing whenever feasible, but there are circumstances that dictate the use of hi ratio shortening so that the product isn't compromised by heat.

You say, "I'm sure if you explained (assuming you use shortening) the facts about hydrogenated fats to your customers, they would likely not want to eat it either, but I doubt that information is imparted at consultations."
Actually, since MOST people continue to consume hydrogenated fats, in some form, I think they'd more likely think I was being a food nanny and they'd choose whichever icing they preferred OR they'd never touch a piece of cake (and many other foods) again......
It's also information that they most likely have gotten elsewhere......NOT SO WITH PLASTIC GLITTER. No one (who isn't a cake professional) thinks for one moment that the sparkly stuff on the cake IS PLASTIC CRAFT GLITTER!!!!!!!!!!!1

I see NO comparison to offering people shortening in their icing and offering to sprinkle it with plastic granules. No one will convince me that a butter based icing covered with plastic granules is "better"/more acceptable than a tablespoon of shortening based icing.......

If I wanted to be a total food nanny, I wouldn't EVER make a cake. No one NEEDS to eat butter and sugar laden ANYTHING.

You say, "Personally I am concerned with how food effects my body and not simply how it travels from my mouth to my derri�re."
We don't yet know how eating plastic granules may affect you....and yet eating plastic granules doesn't bother you? That I don't understand. I don't believe that "what you don't know won't hurt you..."

Personally, I'd think that if shortening is such a hot button issue, deliberately consuming plastic would be even more alarming...

Rae

Sorry....I do not agree - you can type as many words as you like in uppercase Rae and you can put it any way you like, but you will never convince me that eating shortening is the lesser of two evils when compared with tiny amounts of non-toxic glitter.
We can agree that shortening is in a lot of foods, thus we are already massively exposed to the stuff.

My point is that I am not justifying to you the eating of glitter, you are perfectly entitled to your opinion and if you want to use shortening, then by all means go ahead, I won't judge you for it, but don't judge and attack me for using glitter, when trans fats are at the very least as bad for you as glitter......and that's me being reasonable, because shortening has been proven to be harmful, glitter has not! It's about people in glass houses throwing stones and I'm fed up of the double standards on this board and the few people on here who think it's OK to attack someone for the way they do things.

Uh, Rae and "nanefy," I think you're both starting to sound silly. Each of you is defending something that's less-than-healthy, and bashing what the other's defending.

Personally, I bake because I figure I can produce a product that is both tastier and healthier than any of the cookies &c on the grocer's shelves, or most of the stuff I'd get from a bakery.

There is no way in Hell that I would even consider putting even a lot of the stuff Wilton sells on (or in) my cakes (much less something that's neither edible nor easily and completely removable), and if they bear candles, I still use little plastic candleholders (why, oh why, have THEY disappeared from the grocery shelves?!?) And up until I saw that the local cake supply's edible image system was a dedicated system on a shelf right behind the front counter, I actually lost sleep over the question of whether they were following the rules of using edible ink only (given that the high-pressure steam hose I've alluded to in the past would presumably have destroyed the printer itself, by the time it removed all detectable traces of conventional ink).

And no, I don't use shortening in my frostings. I use butter (although I do admit that I occasionally use canned chocolate frosting, but only because for me, making chocolate anything is as much of an exercise in working blind as cooking seafood [which I also don't eat] would be). As far as I'm concerned, if you care more about whether your frosting is pure white than about what's in it, your priorities are a little backwards.

Above all else, if I'm feeding it to a human being, or to an animal I'm not trying to kill, it has to be (as Alton Brown would say) "Good Eats."

Fine. I'll tell my clients that I sometimes use shortening to be sure that the icing doesn't melt off of their cakes and you tell your clients that you're sprinkling plastic granules on theirs. I have no alternative to combat the heat. There is an edible alternative for sparkle that isn't plastic. I can live with that.

My health department is also comfortable with me using something that's edible. When I start adding inedibles to my products, all bets are off--as they should be. There is no room for "plastic" on my ingredients list form.

The forums are read by many. I'm committed to responding to posts that I feel are promoting the use of questionable products. I've done so when it comes to Mexican vanilla (may contain coumarin), fimo clay for molds (not food safe), etc. Readers need to have both sides. For some people, all it will take is one post saying something is "OK" and they'll be able to justify doing something. I want them to, at least, pause--especially when they can go buy edible cake sparkles for less than half of the cost of a pot of disco dust.

You can be as angry with me as you like. I won't give up trying to get people to stop sprinkling food with plastic glitter when edible cake sparkles made from gum arabic are cheaply and readily available from online sources all over the world.

Rae

Oh whatever - I knew this wwould be precisely the tone of your response. had you simply presented the facts I wouldn't have even bothered commenting, but its the way you berate people - there is entirely no need to ever be condescending. I am not angry with you and if I was it certainly wouldn't be for simply stating facts it would be because of the way you speak to people.

Shortening is not the only way to have a cake hold up in the heat - there are most certainly alternatives!

The human body is more resilient than most people think. Consuming either shortening or tiny plastic glitter in moderation shouldn't be a problem.

That said, if you have the choice to use an "edible" item or a "non-toxic" item on food, you should always choose the former. If you sell someone food with ingredients that are not supposed to be consumed that could be a liability issue, and your insurance company may refuse any potential claims.

And your smack at using shortening and "not telling people" isn't to be construed as condescending?
I "berate" because I continue to respond, but your continued responses are not to be seen as berating?

I've shared an alternative on how to get sparkle using something that is edible.

If you have a buttercream icing recipe (not dark chocolate based or ganache) that does not contain shortening (or other heat resistant fats) AND will retain it's shape in 90F+ temps, it would be greatly appreciated by me AND by thousands of site members.

Rae