Pollock tells a different story. "This is a poison," he says, gesturing at several bottles of dragées on his conference room table. "It is, by [the manufacturers'] own admission, not edible. And yet they're producing it in a way that induces consumption. They're making it out of sugar and intentionally allowing it to be put on—desserts!"

When small silver balls known as "silver dragees" are sold exclusively for decorating cakes and are used under conditions which preclude their consumption as confectionery, they are not considered to be in the category of a food or confectionery.

"I took the dragées and I went across the street to the Superior Court and into the chambers of all six of the Superior Court judges. I showed them the jar. I came back, called counsel on the phone and said, 'I just went across the street. I did a straw poll of all the judges in my county, and every one of them has eaten these things. And one of them, I won't tell you which one, always picks the dragées off the cookies and eats them first. Now, you decide which judge you want to be in front of to make the defense argument that no one eats them.' And he said, 'Oh.' "

The normal human body contains approximately 1 mg of silver; the smallest amount of silver reported to produce generalized argyria in humans ranges from 4-5 g to 20-40 g. Silver at 50-500 mg/kg body weight is the lethal toxic dose in humans.

"There is a good chance of consuming toxic metals while eating sweets wrapped with silver foil," said Dr. Mukul Das, who carried out the study.

Eating tiny amounts of pure silver is not considered toxic to humans, but many vendors use foil adulterated with heavy metals, Das said.

"Over half of the analyzed silver foils had lower silver purity than the 99.9 per cent purity stipulated by the prevention of food adulteration act of India," he said.

Edible gold and silver are tasteless. The shavings are served in and on chocolates, cocktails, coffees, pastries, soups, salads and even entrees, like riso oro e zafferano , a gold and saffron risotto. Some chefs like to swaddle a whole chicken with gold leaf -- and eat with relish both foil and fowl. Silver is also big on finger foods. When one thinks of sushi, one can now think metallic shavings on raw mackerel. There is a gourmet who enjoys gilding lobsters, and why not? The celebrity chef Jeffrey Jake of the Lodge at Pebble Beach has created entire menus using gold and silver flecked on the high-end items like abalone, foie gras and truffles for those posh jet-setters who have seen all, done all. "Diners," Jake says, "are expecting more wow now than ever."

At the Bellagio in Las Vegas, the bartender may rim a moistened glass lip with pure silver flake. At Spago in Beverly Hills, they'll gold-dust a flute of sparkling wine. At Libation, a hip new bar on New York's Lower East Side, owner Dennis Keane serves up goblets of "The Ultimate Libation," with 10 Cane rum, Grand Marnier liqueur, Veuve Clicquot champagne, passion fruit nectar and 23-karat gold powder. "They're skeptical at first," says Keane. "Then they drink it right down." Of course they do. The drink costs $16.