Are those bakery cupcake glittery frosting and cake topper dessert decorations safe?

With shows like The Great American Baking Show, dessert decorations are going beyond a basic  bakery wedding cake fondant flowers and sugary homemade cupcake sprinkles.  Nowadays, everything from bakery wedding cakes to kid’s mom’s home-baked cupcakes can be likened to high-priced artwork.  And  while safety is a bigger concern for decorative dessert products that are edible like flowers, sugar candies and fondant shapes most do not give much thought to the inedible bakery dessert decorations, baker’s tools and baked goods packaging.

 For inedible dessert decorations, many people simply throw the spoon in the dishwasher, blow out the birthday cupcake candles and toss the cake topper in a drawer for the next decorating adventure.  But these candles, plastic tooth-pick signs and  decorative cake toppers come in contact with edible parts of the cake, cookies, pastries and muffins and need to be shown to be safe, clean and non-hazardous.  This is especially true as many of these dessert decoration maybe imported or made by non-food manufacturing companies like party-good or novelty manufacturers.  These dessert decorations are made of many different products including fabrics, plastics, ceramics and metals making their safety hard to determine.  So, how do you know if those cake and cupcake dessert decorations, baker’s tools and food packaging are safe?