I don't either, and that's where much of the deception comes in. They move the iron particles around with a magnet, and it appears they are needle-like (oblong), as they appear to stand on end, like whiskers.... Bingo.

Remember those toys (the name escapes me) we had as kids (some parents out there probably still have one kicking around) with the picture of the guy with the red nose and covered with a piece of plastic, and filled with iron particles, with a magnet attached. You could use the magnet to move the iron particles around and give the guy different "hair styles" and "facial hair".

The ones I remember had granular iron, (probably in case kids busted into them and accidentally consumed a few - those things were so common that if they were harmful, there would have been lynchings) but due to the way iron ions line up when influenced by a magnet, the particles stacked up to form needle-like structures. When you removed the magnet (unless the particles retained some of the magnetism, which is pretty easy to do) the particles fell apart again. This phenomenon makes it appear that the granular particles are oblong/elongated slivers of iron - "filings" if you will - when they're really not.

Googling: food grade iron powder yields many interesting articles, and this little gem....
http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/redu...wder-food.html

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