Is dry ice safe to eat?

[pork]

What grade is supermarket dry ice? There are many recipies in which the dry ice would come into intimate contact with food: for instance the chunk bubbling away in the botton of the Halloween "Witches Brew" rum punch. Or mixed in to fast-freeze a really smooth sorbet.

Industrial chemicals come in grades from "Industrial" (yuck) through "Reagent" (pure enough for lab work) to "USP" (pharmacutical). What is in the Harris Teeter dry ice besides carbon dioxide?

[johnsmith45678]

It's not what's in dry ice, but rather how cold it is. If it came in contact with your mouth (or other body parts), I'd think it could do some damage (frostbite).

[Honkman]

I use dry ice daily in the lab and I would never think about to use it even close to any kind of food I would eat. As long as you don't have any certified (regarding the purity) dry-ice don't bring it in contact with your food.

And as mentioned don't bring it in contact with your skin or you will have nice frostbites.

[johnsmith45678]

The dry ice from the grocery store is safe to ingest, once melted of course. We've used it to make the witches brew.

[MelissaH]

But if you're looking to fast-freeze a sorbet, you'd be much better off using liquid nitrogen than dry ice. Carbon dioxide dissolves in water to make carbonic acid, which will change the taste of your sorbet mix.

MelissaH