Wat mag er officieel op een taart? De decoratieregels op een rij - Cupcakedozen.nl

What are you officially allowed to put on a cake? The decoration rules explained

Everything you place on a cake you sell falls under the law. Edible decoration comes under the food additive rules, and anything that is not edible but still touches the cake comes under the rules for food contact materials. You are the one responsible, even when you bought the decoration ready-made. This blog sets out what applies in the EU, what has genuinely changed in recent years around glitter, colours, gold and silver, and how to handle it practically in your own bakery.

Under our blog about the bedazzled cake we got a comment from a follower who is in the middle of her baking exams. She wrote that she is amazed at how much is officially not allowed once you start reading the rules. That is exactly the right observation, and it is a subject most bakers only think about when something goes wrong. So we looked into it. Where the rules are not entirely clear-cut, we say so.

One note on scope: this blog describes the rules that apply in the European Union. If you bake in Great Britain, see the separate note further down, because two of these rules do not apply to you.

In short: what is allowed and what is not

  • Not allowed: loose plastic glitter. Since 17 October 2023 it may no longer be sold anywhere in the EU, not even as craft glitter.
  • Not allowed: titanium dioxide (E171). Banned as a food additive since 7 August 2022. It was widely used in older white glitter and lustre dust.
  • Not allowed: acrylic craft rhinestones and toy figures on a cake you sell. They are not approved for food contact.
  • Take care: edible gold and silver are authorised, but only for a limited set of uses. Silver (E174) is also under pressure.
  • Take care: six bright colours require a warning on the label about children's attention.
  • Take care: fresh flowers are not banned, but the risks are real.
  • Allowed: non-edible decoration that is suitable for food contact, as long as your customer knows it has to come off before the cake is cut.

The main rule: you are responsible for everything on the cake

Many bakers assume the responsibility sits with the supplier. It does not. The moment you place a cake on the market, you are the one who has to be able to show that everything on it is safe. The UK Food Standards Agency put it bluntly a few years ago when bakers asked about flowers on cakes: the person who introduces the flowers and accoutrements to the cake and then puts it on the market is the person responsible.

That reasoning applies just as much to toppers, picks, glitter and gems. And it is not only a British view: it follows from the European regulation on materials that come into contact with food. That regulation does not only cover plates and packaging. It covers any article that can reasonably be expected to come into contact with food under normal use. A cake topper you push into the buttercream falls squarely within it. The core of article 3: a material must not transfer its constituents to the food in quantities that could endanger health, bring about an unacceptable change in the composition of the food, or spoil its taste or smell.

Source: Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, article 1(2) and article 3.

In practice this means that "my supplier said it was fine" is not a defence if you cannot back it up. So ask for documentation, and keep it.

Three categories you need to keep apart

Almost all the confusion around cake decoration comes from three different things being treated as one. Separate them and the rest follows.

1. Edible. Made from foodstuffs and authorised additives. It can go in the mouth, and it counts towards your ingredient list and your allergen information. Sugar flowers, chocolate decorations, wafer paper, isomalt and gelatine gems all belong here.

2. Not edible, but suitable for food contact. It may touch the cake, but it must not be eaten. Think of a well-made plastic topper or a pick that has been approved as a food contact material. You recognise it by the wording "for food contact" or by the glass-and-fork symbol. That marking is not required on articles that are already clearly intended for food by their very nature, such as a cake server: the requirement exists precisely for articles where it is not obvious.

3. Decoration only. Meant to be looked at, not to go near food. This is where it goes wrong most often, because the packaging sounds reassuring. Watch out for the term "non-toxic": that is a craft term and only means you will not be acutely poisoned if you accidentally swallow some. It is not approval for use on food.

For plastics there is an extra point: a written declaration of compliance must be available at marketing stages other than retail, so at your wholesaler or importer. As a buyer you are entitled to ask for it.

Source: Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, articles 15 and 16, and Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, article 15.

Glitter: this is where something really did change

If there is one subject where the answer has genuinely shifted in recent years, it is glitter. Two separate rules are at play, and they are often mixed up.

Titanium dioxide has left the food chain

E171 titanium dioxide gave glitter and lustre dust their opaque white shine. Since 7 August 2022, a food containing E171 may no longer be placed on the EU market. It is still permitted in cosmetics and medicines, which is exactly why you keep coming across it. If you still have older pots of glitter or lustre dust in the cupboard, check the ingredient declaration.

Source: Regulation (EU) 2022/63 of 14 January 2022, in force from 7 February 2022 with a transition period to 7 August 2022.

Loose plastic glitter may not be sold at all any more

This is the rule that surprises most bakers, and it does not come from food law but from chemicals law. Since 17 October 2023, loose glitter made of non-degradable plastic smaller than five millimetres may no longer be sold anywhere in the EU. That includes craft glitter, and it includes using it "for decoration only". Glitter made of glass or metal, biodegradable or water-soluble glitter, and glitter permanently embedded in a solid material fall outside the restriction.

Source: Regulation (EU) 2023/2055, the restriction on intentionally added microplastics in Annex XVII to REACH.

So what is "edible" glitter, then?

Genuinely edible glitter is built from foodstuffs and authorised colours, so it has an ingredient declaration with E numbers or ingredient names. Watch one common component in particular: according to EFSA, potassium aluminium silicate (E555) is not authorised as a food additive in its own right, only as a carrier in certain pigments. A glitter whose main component is E555 is therefore not an authorised food additive.

The practical test is simple. Turn the pot around. If you see an ingredient list and a statement that it is a foodstuff, it is edible. If you only see marketing language, "for decoration only" or no ingredients at all, it is not, however appealing the word on the front may be.

Edible gold and silver: sold more widely than they are authorised

Gold leaf and silver dragees are sold everywhere, but the authorisation is narrower than the market suggests. Gold (E175) and silver (E174) are authorised in the EU, but not as general decoration for bakery products. The uses that come back consistently are: the external coating of confectionery, the decoration of chocolate, and liqueurs.

That distinction matters in practice. Gold leaf on a chocolate decoration you place on the cake fits that description. Gold leaf directly on buttercream, or silver dragees scattered loose across a cake, does not obviously fit. If you want certainty, consult the European Commission's food additives database, or ask your supplier which food category the product falls under.

With silver there is something more. In April 2025 EFSA published a follow-up assessment and concluded that the available data are insufficient to establish the safety of E174. There are open questions about genotoxicity, about the characterisation of nanoparticles, and about the release of silver ions. As far as we have been able to establish, E174 is still authorised at the time of writing and the European Commission has not adopted a regulation removing it. But it is worth watching: if you are building a large decoration range on silver right now, you are building on a substance with an uncertain future.

Bright colours: the warning many bakers do not know about

Six synthetic colours require an extra statement on the label. They are tartrazine (E102), quinoline yellow (E104), sunset yellow FCF (E110), azorubine or carmoisine (E122), ponceau 4R (E124) and allura red AC (E129). These are precisely the colours you use for bright yellow, orange and red.

Foods containing one or more of these six must carry the name or E number of the colour on the label, followed by: "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children".

Source: Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, Annex V to article 24.

For prepacked products this is undisputed. For non-prepacked products, European enforcement bodies take different positions, and we could not find an explicit statement from the Dutch food authority on this point. That does not mean you can ignore it, because many bakers sell prepacked products without calling them that: a cake you box in the morning and hand over later that day is prepacked.

The simplest route: choose gel colours without these six and the question never arises. If you do use them, simply add the statement. It is one extra line on the label you are already producing for your allergen information.

Cake toppers, picks and figurines

In legal terms a topper is not decoration but an article that comes into contact with food. That makes the questions you need to ask concrete.

  • Is it approved for food contact? Look for the wording "for food contact" or the glass-and-fork symbol, or ask your supplier for a declaration of compliance.
  • What goes into the cake? A stem of unknown material does not belong straight in the buttercream. Use a food-safe sleeve, or let the topper rest on a disc.
  • Can it come loose? Small loose parts are a choking hazard, certainly on children's cakes.
  • Is it actually a toy? Toy figures fall under the toy safety rules, not under the food contact rules. The two are not interchangeable.
  • Is it a craft material? Acrylic rhinestones and stick-on gems from the hobby shop are not approved for food contact and do not belong on a cake you sell.

Birthday candles belong in this list too. Use holders, so that neither the candle nor the melting material ends up in the cake.

So what do you actually use to hold a topper safely?

Here you run into something practical: a standard product category called "topper sleeve" does not really exist. What bakers use instead are two things that are readily available from cake decorating wholesalers.

Posy picks, also called flower spikes. Hollow plastic tubes with a pointed end, made for cake decorating. You push the point into the cake and the stem goes inside the tube, so nothing makes direct contact with the buttercream. They are designed for flower stems, but they work just as well for a slim topper stem if the diameter fits.

Hollow cake dowels. The plastic support rods you use for stacking cakes also come in a hollow version. Cut off a piece at the length you need and you have exactly that kind of sleeve. The advantages: you probably already have them, they are sturdier, and you set the length yourself.

What to check when buying is the same as for the topper itself: ask for the declaration of compliance. This is plastic that touches the cake, so the food contact rules apply in full. A tube sold as "for cake decorating" is not automatically approved for food contact.

Two solutions to avoid. Cutting up a drinking straw sounds sensible, but single-use plastic straws have been banned in the EU since 3 July 2021 under the single-use plastics directive, and paper straws go soggy in buttercream. And gluing the topper to a wooden skewer: the skewer may be food safe, but the glue usually is not.

If you would rather skip the sleeve altogether, there are two alternatives. Let the topper rest on a disc instead of pushing it in, or choose a topper with a wide flat base. For bento and mini cakes that is often more practical anyway, because the cake is too shallow to anchor a stem properly.

Fresh flowers: no ban, but more risk than you think

Fresh flowers on cakes are not banned, and that is exactly what makes them difficult: the judgement is yours. The UK Food Standards Agency lists four risks that apply just as much on the continent. Flowers, foliage, berries or plant sap may be toxic or may cause an allergic reaction. There may be pesticide residues on them, including on organically grown flowers. Children eat decoration without thinking. And there may be insects or slugs in them.

That first risk became concrete again recently. On 21 January 2026, the advisory bureau of the Dutch food authority published a risk assessment based on 177 samples of imported roses. Residues of crop protection products were found. One of its recommendations is to actively tell consumers not to eat rose petals, with particular attention to young children. Cut flowers are not grown as food, so no residue limits apply to them.

If you do want to work with fresh flowers, this is the safe method:

  • Choose deliberately: look up every variety and keep toxic ones off the cake entirely.
  • Work with a barrier. Put stems in a food-safe sleeve or on a disc, so no plant sap seeps into the cake.
  • Never put florist wire or floral tape straight into the cake, and never leave wire inside it.
  • Place the flowers as late as possible, check for insects and rinse or wipe them clean.
  • Tell your customer the flowers have to come off before cutting, and put it on your order confirmation.

An alternative that keeps getting better: sugar flowers, or flowers made from wafer paper. They have none of these problems and they hold up longer in photographs too.

Large non-edible elements: the lesson of the bedazzled cake

On a bedazzled cake everything above comes together at once. The gems are large, they disappear into the buttercream and there are dozens of them. A two-centimetre gem that goes unnoticed while the cake is being cut is a choking and breakage hazard.

So for this trend, choose genuinely edible gems made from gelatine, agar or isomalt if the cake is simply going to be cut and eaten. If you do use non-edible elements, use them as a deliberate showpiece to be removed, made from material suitable for food contact, and count out loud with your customer at handover how many are on there.

How to document it in five steps

Following the rules is one thing. Being able to show that you follow them is another. This takes almost no time and it makes an enormous difference if a question ever comes up.

  1. When buying any decoration item, ask for documentation: a declaration of compliance, or at the very least a clear statement that it is suitable for food contact.
  2. Keep a simple overview per item with supplier, article number and a photo of the label. A folder on your phone is enough.
  3. Put non-edible parts on your order confirmation, so your customer has it in writing before the cake leaves.
  4. Put a card in the box stating what has to come off before cutting, and how many pieces there are.
  5. Say it out loud at handover as well. That is the moment it sticks.

A note for bakers in Great Britain

Two of the rules above are EU rules that Great Britain did not follow after Brexit. Titanium dioxide (E171) is still permitted as a food additive in Great Britain: the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland reviewed it and identified no safety concerns. And the EU microplastics restriction, which took loose plastic glitter off the market, was adopted after Brexit and does not apply in Great Britain. The UK has its own, narrower microbeads ban in rinse-off cosmetics instead. Northern Ireland does follow EU REACH, so the glitter restriction applies there.

Everything else in this blog, and above all the principle that you are responsible for whatever you put on the cake, applies just as much: the UK retained the food contact materials framework and the colour warning after Brexit.

What this means for the way you hand the cake over

It is striking how many of these rules come down to the same point: your customer has to know what is on the cake and what has to come off. That is not only a legal point, it is a presentation point.

A cake box with a window helps with this more than you would expect: your customer sees the cake and the decoration at the moment of handover, without anyone having to touch it. That is exactly the moment to explain which parts have to come off. A sturdy cake board slightly larger than the cake keeps the decoration away from the box, so nothing brushes against your work when the lid goes on.

Have a look at the window cake boxes and cake boards at Cupcakedozen.nl, so your cake arrives at your customer's home just as safely and just as beautifully as it stood on your bench.

Frequently asked questions about cake decoration and the rules

Can you put non-edible decoration on a cake you sell?
Yes, but under conditions. The material must be suitable for contact with food, it must not transfer substances to the cake, and your customer must know it has to come off before the cake is cut. Craft materials and toys do not meet those conditions.

Is edible glitter always really edible?
No. Genuinely edible glitter consists of foodstuffs and authorised colours and carries an ingredient declaration. Products that only say "non-toxic" or "for decoration only" do not. Watch out for E555 potassium aluminium silicate too: according to EFSA it is not authorised as a food additive in its own right.

Is glitter banned in the EU?
Loose glitter made of non-degradable plastic under five millimetres may no longer be sold in the EU since 17 October 2023, under the microplastics restriction in Regulation (EU) 2023/2055. Glitter made of glass or metal, biodegradable or soluble glitter, and glitter permanently embedded in a material are not covered. The restriction does not apply in Great Britain.

Is titanium dioxide (E171) still allowed in cake decoration?
Not in the EU. Since 7 August 2022, foods containing E171 may no longer be placed on the EU market under Regulation (EU) 2022/63. It is still permitted in cosmetics and medicines, which is why you still come across it. In Great Britain it remains authorised as a food additive.

Is edible gold allowed on a cake?
Gold (E175) is authorised in the EU, but for a limited set of uses: the external coating of confectionery, the decoration of chocolate and liqueurs. Gold leaf on a chocolate decoration fits within that, gold leaf directly on buttercream does not obviously fit. If in doubt, ask your supplier which food category the product falls under.

Can you put fresh flowers on a cake?
There is no ban, but the risks are real: toxic varieties, pesticide residues, insects and wire in the cake. Cut flowers are not grown as food, so no residue limits apply to them. Always work with a barrier between flower and cake, never leave wire behind, and tell your customer the flowers have to come off.

What do you use to hold a cake topper safely?
A posy pick (flower spike) or a piece of hollow cake dowel, so the stem never touches the iced surface. Ask for a declaration of compliance for that tube as well, because it is plastic that comes into contact with the cake. A cut-up drinking straw or a topper glued to a wooden skewer is not a good alternative.

Who is responsible if the decoration turns out not to be safe?
Whoever places the cake on the market, so the baker. The fact that you bought the decoration ready-made changes nothing. So ask your supplier for documentation and keep it.

This blog gives general information based on the EU regulations and publications available at the time of writing, and is not legal advice. Regulations change. For your own situation, consult your national food safety authority, your trade association or your supplier.

Sources

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