March 5, 2006 ? Oscar season is a carpet-rolling, flashbulb-popping, flower-arranging, bomb-sniffing hive of hyperactivity beamed to 195 countries ? from Iceland to Kazakhstan to Germany, and other places with funny microphones. ...
"Everyone's going to get soup like that, with 24-karat gold leaf on top," said Wolfgang Puck, who is in charge of catering the governor's ball. - MORE
How safe is it to eat gold? Here's an answer from 5 years ago.
Relax (if that's possible in the catering business). The gold you use is harmless. According to my sources, gold does not react with anything. It's unaffected by moisture, oxygen, or ordinary acids but is attacked by the halogens. Aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids that liberates chlorine) is so named for its ability to dissolve gold, the "king" of metals. If your stomach has aqua regia floating around in it, eating gold would be the least of your worries--the hole in your stomach lining would be a higher priority, I'm guessing. Gold has no nutritive value, fats or carbs, so the body does with it what it does with all other non-foods--passes it out as quickly as possible. (Insert optional golden toilet bowl joke here.) Same story with silver, but it's a little more reactive than gold. Normal stomach acids can act on it, and in a substantial amount (we're talking two tablespoons or more), can cause nausea and/or vomiting. To be on the safe side, then, I'd say go for the gold. - StraightDope
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