Latest / The Monégasque Table / Plastic in Edible Glitter? Craft vs Food-Grade Facts
Transcript
- Dana: My kids-birthday group chat found a new thing to panic about this week. Somebody posted, in all caps, "GLITTER IS MICROPLASTIC," and now half the moms I know are swearing off sparkly cupcakes forever. Margaux: And about 150 times a month, somebody types that exact worry into a search bar — is there plastic in edible glitter. Today we answer it with an ingredient list, not a vibe. Dana: Good, because I've put shimmer on 3 cakes this year. If I've been feeding my children craft supplies, I'd like to know now. Margaux: Welcome to The Monégasque Table. And here's the answer up front, because a worried mom shouldn't have to wait for it. If the jar is genuinely edible glitter, there is no plastic in it. None. The shimmer is mineral — ground pigments you can look up by their federal listing numbers. But your group chat isn't crazy, and this is the part they got right: craft glitter really is plastic, it's sold one aisle over, and the labels do a terrible job of telling you which jar is which. That's the whole episode. Dana: So the panic is wrong about the product but right about the shelf. Margaux: That's the cleanest summary you've ever done, so let's earn it. The Sparkle Lab is open. Want to read a real ingredient list with me? Dana: Go. Margaux: Across our entire line — every color, every jar — the ingredient list comes down to 7 things. Mica-based pearlescent pigments, which are the shimmer engine. Iron oxides — mineral colors. Titanium dioxide, a white mineral pigment. And then 4 food dyes you already know from the frosting aisle: FD&C Red No 40, Blue No 1, Yellow No 5, and Yellow No 6. Dana: And that's it. Margaux: That's it. Nothing on that list is a polymer. Minerals and food colorants, full stop. And the mineral part is exactly why the microplastics worry doesn't land here — microplastics are what plastic breaks into. No plastic going in means no microplastic coming out. Dana: Okay, but let me push on your own number, because 150 searches a month is… nothing? My group chat generates 150 messages before breakfast. Maybe this whole scare is 5 moms and a hashtag. Margaux: Fair swing. Two answers. That 150 is only the people typing the word microplastic specifically — the wider is-this-safe question cluster runs over 2,000 searches a month. And the number I trust more than any search count comes from reviews. There's an analysis of about 2,400 category reviews, and 9.5% of the negative mentions — nearly 1 in 10 — are someone discovering the sparkle they bought was decorative-only. Sold in an edible niche. Landed on real food. Dana: Say that plainly. People bought glitter where the food is, put it on food, and then found out it was never food. Margaux: That's exactly what that number is. And it's not just reviewers talking. The FDA has investigated real contamination cases traced back to luster dust that wasn't edible. Their position is blunt: if it goes on food, it has to be genuinely edible, and the ingredients have to be listed. Dana: Then here's where I get angry, and you're going to let me. The jar behind those stories usually says non-toxic on it. In big, reassuring letters. A mom in a store aisle, one hand on the cart and a toddler on her hip, reads non-toxic and hears safe to eat. That's not her failing a chemistry quiz. That label is doing exactly what it was designed to do. The system is rigged against the person holding the jar. Margaux: That's the round you win, and it's the most important one today. Non-toxic is a craft-supply word. It means this probably won't hurt you — the way crayons probably won't. It has never meant made to be eaten. The word that means made to be eaten is edible. You shouldn't need a decoder ring at a party store. But until labels grow up, you need exactly one move: flip the jar. Dana: Alright, teach me the flip. I'm holding a jar of sparkle. I've got 30 seconds before the toddler grabs something breakable. What am I looking for? Margaux: Three things. One: the word edible, stated plainly. Not non-toxic, not for decorative use only — both of those are craft-side words. Two: an actual ingredient list with names you can look up. Mica-based pearlescent pigments. Iron oxide. The FD&C dyes. Mineral shimmer even comes with federal paperwork — mica-based pigments are listed as a color additive under 21 CFR 73.350, iron oxides under 73.200. You don't have to memorize that. You just have to see that the maker bothered to print it. Dana: And three? Margaux: If there's no ingredient list at all — put it back. That's the biggest trust gap in this whole category. In those same reviews, about 2 out of 3 ingredient complaints aren't about a scary ingredient. They're about the list simply not being there. Dana: So the silence is the red flag. Margaux: The silence is the red flag. A maker who knows the jar is food puts the contents on the jar. Every time. Because the first person to eat any birthday cake is a kid dragging a finger through the frosting before you've even cut a slice — and that finger is who the label is for. Dana: Okay, second punch, because I promised the group chat. Even if it's all minerals and food dye — some of those moms don't want Red No 40 anywhere near a toddler's cupcake, period. Mineral doesn't mean nothing-to-discuss. Margaux: And I'm not going to argue them out of that, because it's a preference, not a myth. Two honest answers. If synthetic dyes are your line, our spec sheet lists a handful of shades made of nothing but the mica-based pigment itself — the plain white and iridescent shimmers. One ingredient in the jar. And if even that's more than you want — sparkle is optional. Sprinkles, sugar, fruit. A birthday cake doesn't owe anybody glitter. Dana: That's suspiciously reasonable of you. Margaux: It's a trend I'm trying out. Which brings us to who should skip this jar entirely. If you're decorating something nobody will ever eat — a display gingerbread house, tree ornaments, a photo prop — buy the craft glitter. It's cheaper, it's louder, and plastic is fine on things that stay out of mouths. The edible price is for food that gets eaten. Paying it for a centerpiece is just donating money. Dana: (laughs) And the reverse mistake puts craft supplies on a birthday cake, so let's all pick our aisle carefully. Margaux: One mistake wastes 10 dollars. The other one is why the FDA has a file. Pick your aisle. Dana: Scorecard time. I walked in scared of a group-chat headline. Where I landed: real edible glitter is minerals plus food dyes — 7 ingredients, no plastic, nothing that can shed microplastic. The scary stories are real, but they're about decorative glitter crossing into the food aisle — which is exactly why the only word I trust now is edible, backed by an ingredient list I can actually read. Non-toxic stays a crayon word. My caveats: synthetic dyes are a family-by-family call, and display projects get the cheap plastic stuff with zero guilt. Margaux: One flip of the jar. That's the entire audit. Dana: The group chat is getting a very smug screenshot of this episode. Margaux: That's what we're here for. And that label habit has been stress-tested — more than 400,000 orders across the US, Canada, and the UK, every jar with the contents printed on it. If you want the kids'-cakes version of everything we just said, the MONÉGASQUE 7 gram baking line is on Amazon — 13 colors, full ingredient list on every jar. Dana: Footnote delivered. Margaux: Like a shrug. Next time, we walk from the cake table over to the bar cart — how do you choose an edible glitter for cocktails? Flake size, color, what actually keeps sparkling in the glass. Different job, different jar. Dana: I'm bringing champagne questions. Many champagne questions. Margaux: The Lab will be ready. Quick note before we go — this show is produced by the team at Monégasque, with AI-crafted hosts, and every number you heard was checked by humans against the documents. See you at the table.