I am not going to debate this issue, and I am not saying anyone is 'right' or 'wrong', I am simply going to offer my take on the situation... when the product was unofficially tested (to my knowledge, not in a laboratory), and showed some leeching of whatever chemicals were present, it was soaked for hours and hours in whatever liquid. (I'm sorry I do not recall the exact details) There is a huge difference between soaking something and touching it lightly for a few seconds. It's just like, eating one packet of sugar substitute in your coffee doesn't hurt you, but if you ate a pound of it a day you'd most likely get cancer. I am not arguing with anyone, simply offering a perspective. As I said, I do not wish to debate the issue, and I leave it up to each individual person as to whether they choose to use it. I am in the process of patenting my idea and developing a line of products featuring a completely foodsafe roller that will null this entire argument, so hopefully that will come along quickly, and this will be a moot point. Until then, use your best judgement as to whether you choose to employ this method, and as I have stated MANY times, if you are at all concerned about it, simply use a Viva paper towel between the icing and the roller. Problem solved!

I know there has been alot of debate on the roller touching the icing...so what I've done is lay a piece of wax paper down or use the Viva paper towel, so that my roller is not touching the food. HTH the next person!


Edited to add: I think our emails crossed wires at the same time!! I ditto that!!

Oh, thanks cwcopeland for the thread link!! I've been looking for it and couldn't find. (Operator-error! )

Just thought I'd add this because I think it's pretty interesting regarding the issue about whether these rollers are safe or not.

I just got back from a wonderful week at Walt Disney World. We were staying at one of the very nice onsite resort hotels. At one of the restaurants in the hotel, they have a glassed window area where you can see into the prep area and watch the chefs at work.

While I was watching (yep, went to Disney and what did I do??? Spent an hour just watching a very talented dessert chef! lol). At any rate, imagine my surprise when he pulled out the exact same foam roller to use on the chocolate sheets he was working on.

Having read the debate here, I just had to ask him about it. He had no idea where it was purchased at, but it was indeed the same roller material that you buy at any hardware store. He said they use them all the time, wouldn't be without it.

There isn't a company more concerned with liability issues than Disney. If it's ok with them to use the foam roller, that's all I need to know.

Darlin'... you just made my day!!! I agree with you... if Disney is cool with it, I'm pretty confident in it!

Again, I LOVE my roller. Thanks Melvira.

I was in a decorating class the other day and pulled out my roller to smooth the icining on my dragon (in my pics ). One of the students and the teacher kind of looked at me like I was crazy. Then one of the other students used it and loved it. I told them I found the Melvira Method on CC.

So much better than the fondant smoother.

Awesome! And hey, its good to know they have a talented bakery window we can "peeping Tom" into !!!

Well that is GOOD news.........but, I am not at all surprised.
Used both of my rollers today and will be using both of them again tomorrow................rollin rollin rollin~~~keep them rollers rollin, ROOOOLLLLIIIIIIN!!!!

I FINALLY got a hight density foam roller!!! DH got it for me when he was out of town. No one around here carries them. Until I got the real thing though, I had come up with something on my own that may help others that are unable to obtain these little jewels!

I took a regular paint roller that I got from wal-mart and took a swimming pool noodle and cut it to fit the roller and it worked pretty darn well. I just placed a Viva on the cake and then rolled over that.