A while ago we thought it would be fun to decorate some of our cupcakes with those gold and silver dragees, better known as little silver balls. We went to the website where we get some of our decorations and tried to order them. *Will ship to anywhere in the Unites States except California*. That seemed really strange; why would they be legal in every other state except California?

Here’s the deal with the dragees:

-they are considered toxic because they contain small ammounts of silver.

-no deaths or illnesses have been linked to dragees specifically.

-California was the first state to make them illegal, most other states just require the lables to be printed with “For decoration only NOT EDIBLE”

“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.” - SFGate Dec. 2003

So, arguments are still going on about the ammount of silver that the dragees actually contain. Some bakers are fighting to have them sold just around Christmas time. We’ll have to wait and see if that ever happens or if those little silver balls are gone for good!