Flowers grown with minimum pesticide is good for all of us-- especially the harvest workers who handle the product! In the last 10 years, growers worldwide have make advances in pest control without use of pesticide, or at least reducing it. Does this mean you can eat any flower bought at a flower shop? No. Most flowers sold commercially are sold as "ornamental" because there are trace amounts of pesticide on them. If they're labeled "edible" that means they're below pesticide maximums and you can eat them. We get peppers, berries, fruited branches, olives, and others; I've tried them all and am still here to tell you about it, but I really couldn't reccommend it to you-- some people have a very strong reaction to even minute amounts. Unless you know how everyone who consumes your item reacts, use edible flowers ONLY, on your food trays and cakes. If you use "edible" flowers, you can let the flowers touch the food someone will eat. If you use "ornamental" flowers, the safest course is to sacrifice (read, DON'T serve) the parts of food the flowers are touching. This sometimes means thinking differently about how you will decorate your food item. Your masterpiece cake, for instance, could have the flowers all in a cluster so that you only miss one piece of cake, instead of several. Think of it as a design problem, and see how many solutions you could come up with. Olives fresh off the branch by the way, are bitter and soapy-- better brined in the can from your local grocery!

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