Silica Gel

Silica gel is a granular, porous form of silica made synthetically from sodium silicate. Despite the name, silica gel is a solid. Silica gel is most commonly encountered in everyday life as beads packed in a semipermeable plastic. In this form, it is used as a desiccant to control local humidity in order to avoid spoilage of some goods. Because of poisonous dopants (see below) and their very high adsorption of moisture, silica gel packets usually bear warnings for the user not to eat the contents. If consumed, the pure silica gel is unlikely to cause acute or chronic illness, but would be problematic nonetheless. However, some packaged desiccants may include fungicide and/or pesticide poisons. Food-grade desiccant should not include any poisons which would cause long-term harm to humans if consumed in the quantities normally included with the items of food. A chemically similar substance with far greater porosity is aerogel.