This silica gel packet is found in just about everything you purchase, including dry foods, shoe boxes, electronics, cell phones, camera cases, cat litter, medicine bottles, etc. All silica gel does is absorb moisture. This helps keep your products fresh and free from moisture damage. Luckily Clear (white) Silica Gel is not harmful; it's non-toxic, non-flammable, and made from sodium silicate. Silica Gel is not "gel" at all; it actually is a solid and found in granular or bead form.
If that bag of Beef Jerky didn't fill you up and you were tempted by a bite of this Silica Gel, only to think better of it later, I bet you found yourself quite thirsty. You'd need to drink several glasses of water to help dilute, and most likely you will see no medical health effects. If for some reason you went back and decided to ingest a whole pile of Silica Gel, then I would suggest you get medical advice.
Now, there are apparently also desiccants that uses cobalt chloride, which
will harm you. Best not to try them out to test.
-- Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:42 am --
Crap, forgot to cite. The above information is from
http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... tml?cat=22
-- Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:52 am --
Even better is this wonderful site:
http://do-not-eat.com/
More than you'll want to know about them.