TIDBITS

LITTLE ROCK — GOLD RUSH

Gold is popping up a lot in unexpected places these days, namely restaurant and food truck menus. Local examples: Hot Dog Mike’s $1,501 Hot Dog, consisting of a beef frank topped with a whole lobster tail, saffron aioli and edible gold dust; and the Golden Lobster Rolls at Little Rock’s Kiyen’s Seafood Steak and Sushi, which feature 14-karat gold flecks. A New York food truck is selling something it calls the “Douche Burger” for a whopping $666.

The burger contains lobster, caviar, truffles and a beef patty wrapped in six sheets of gold leaf.

So how much gold can a person safely consume?

Theoretically, you could eat your fill of 24-karat gold without falling ill. The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t evaluated edible gold leaf for safety, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry doesn’t consider gold a toxic substance.

Pure gold is chemically inert and passes through the human digestive system without being absorbed into the body. Since 24-karat gold is very soft and fragile, most edible gold - whether leaf, flakes or dust - alsocontains a little bit of silver, which is also inert. But don’t go around eating just any old gold - non-edible gold leaf, which is used for gilding, sometimes contains copper, which can be toxic in high doses. Consuming impure gold preparations such as colloidal gold or gold salts can lead to a change in skin pigmentation and other adverse health effects.

Europeans have been adding gold leaf to food and liquor (like Danziger Goldwasser and Goldschlager) since the Renaissance, and gold leaf can also be found adorning Japanese candies and South Asian pastries.