Is There A Downside To Adding Glitter To Your Pickle Jar?

So during your latest TikTok binge you've stumbled upon the world of glitter pickles, and now you probably have a lot of questions. Glitter pickles (aka pretty pickles, aka glickles) are one of the latest unusual food trends to come out of the hyper-viral world of social media, seemingly spawned from videos posted by Tiktok user densewaffles. The videos offer no guidance, just a quick shot of a hand pouring glitter into a pickle jar as a disembodied voice saying "pretty pickles," drones in the background. Maybe you like the look of these shimmery pickles? Well you wouldn't be alone, as the original videos and plenty of follow ups have amassed tens of millions of views. So if they look good to you, is there any reason to not make them?

The short answer is not really. The videos involve mixing glitter with store-bought pickles, so there aren't any of the normal risks that might come with making and fermenting pickles yourself. If you are concerned about ruining the taste of your favorite pickle brand, there is no downside there, as edible glitter is made to be flavorless and act purely as a decorative ingredient. Just please make sure you are using edible glitter. While lots of glitter is labeled "non-toxic," that doesn't mean it's necessarily safe to eat. Brands that are made to be consumed explicitly state they are safe to eat on the label.

What is edible glitter exactly? It's usually made from sugar and some common food-safe additives like acacia, maltodextrin, and cornstarch, along with food coloring. Acacia, also called gum arabic, and maltodextrin are stabilizers and thickeners that are already used in many canned pickles, so they shouldn't be of any concern. If you are just shaking up glitter in your already-made pickles, go crazy.

However we wouldn't recommend adding edible glitter to any pickle recipes you are making yourself at home. None of the ingredients in edible glitter is explicitly dangerous, but there is debate over whether cornstarch is safe for home canning, and adding foreign elements of any kind could risk bacterial growth. Instead it's recommended to only follow tested recipes when making pickles at home. And as of right now, we don't know of any glickle recipes, although give it time and who knows what TikTok will dream up.

Now that you are properly prepared for TikTok's latest food trend, what tricks are there to it? Well considering how simple and flavorless is, not really, but a sampling of the many videos already dedicated glitter pickles tells us to pick a color that really stands out and pops against the green brine, like a pink or red, because otherwise your pretty pickles will turn a shiny but unappealing greenish-brown color. But hey, they are your pickles, so do what you want with them.