Is It Safe To Eat Fresh Snow? Key Tips For Winter Fun

This topic seems super strange. The yellow snow you might see around is obviously bad. Don't eat yellow snow - that's yellow from urine. I think we all know that, and it's the running joke of "do you have a tip? Yes, don't eat yellow snow". As kids we all heard that growing up. But kids tend to eat regular white snow, and there are even some recipes that have popped up on social media calling for a certain amount of snow to make whatever it is.

IS ALL FRESHLY FALLEN SNOW SAFE TO CONSUME

The question is this - is snow safe to eat or does it have a bunch of pollutants that we just can't see?

Apparently there have been some studies on this subject. And at first I was thinking "of course it's fine if it just fell out of the sky and no one has even walked on it - whether that's a human or animal". That isn't all that goes into that subject. There are several other things that can contaminate or pollute the freshly fallen snow.

IT DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU LIVE

If you live out in the country, the possiblity of freshly fallen snow having any sort of pollutant in it is fairly low. If you live in a more urban area, there is a higher chance of that snow having contaminants in it even when it has just fallen from the sky.

Both the American Lung Association and Nationwide Children’s Hospital say the amount of pollution in snow varies depending on how clean or dirty the air is. Urban areas generally have more polluted air than rural areas, so city snow is more likely to contain higher levels of contamination.

WHAT IS CONSIDERED THE SAFEST SNOW TO EAT - IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO THAT

Freshly falling snow on less windy days
Snow that is bright white
Snow that has never been plowed
Snow that has never touched the ground

Just something to consider if you are going to try one or more of those recipes that you find on social media, or if your kids are out playing in the snow.