Cookie Decoration No-No?

Karen Youso addressed the following question in the Fixit column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Q: Are those silver BB-like balls on decorated Christmas cookies safe to eat?
A: No. Remove them from the cookie before eating, is the advice from the FDA. Called "dragees" (dray-jays), they're classified as a non-food item by the FDA because of the very minute amount of foil coating on the hard sugar spheres. Dragees are sold at grocery and cake decorating stores, except in California where they are banned, much to the chagrin of cooking and cake decorators there.

I remember eating those balls as a kid. I enjoyed biting into the hard spheres. Now I learn they are classified as a non-food item. No wonder I turned out how I did. (We are assuming that the Food and Drug Administration knows a thing or two about food.)