Health Risk
Royal icing is traditionally prepared with fresh egg whites. Although highly unlikely, there is a very small chance of salmonella poisoning from improperly stored and handled eggs. Particularly in the US where this concern is taken more seriously by public health officials, meringue powder or ready-to-use, pasteurized, refrigerated egg whites (wet eggs) can be used with similar results.
Of increasing concern in the western world is a rise in nut allergies. As royal icing is often used together with marzipan to decorate cakes, it is becoming increasingly common for these to be substituted with fondant.
Read more about this topic: Royal Icing
Famous quotes containing the words health and/or risk:
“Mens sana in men’s sauna, in the flush
Of health and toilets, private and corporal glee,”
—Anthony Hecht (b. 1923)
“Maybe we were the blind mechanics of disaster, but you don’t pin the guilt on the scientists that easily. You might as well pin it on M motherhood.... Every man who ever worked on this thing told you what would happen. The scientists signed petition after petition, but nobody listened. There was a choice. It was build the bombs and use them, or risk that the United States and the Soviet Union and the rest of us would find some way to go on living.”
—John Paxton (1911–1985)