Shellac On Your Apples (Refinishing to Bring Out The Luster in Old Food)

If you’ve ever done any cabinetmaking you know that a good coat of shellac can really protect and beautify the wood. But did you know that the same stuff can also “beautify and protect” your food as well? Protect it from what…drying out, size reduction..the sort of things that keep it looking good even though it’s getting quite old. Now you might think I’m kidding. Well I’m not. And guess who has eaten shellac in the past? I have and you have as well, although we didn’t realize it at the time. When? When we thought we were eating healthy….Huh….  I guess this is one of those things where you say “no possible way”. You know, that’s one of the amazing things about the mass marketed food industry, you never cease to be amazed. 

  So what the heck is shellac anyway? Well the Bulls Eye Shellac Website gives a pretty good description (by the way check out the FDA Certification info at the bottom). Well, according to Bulls Eye, shellac is ”..an alcohol based solution of pure lac, a natural resin secreted by tiny insects on certain trees, mainly in India.” Apparently the purpose of this secretion is to protect the insects from predators. They completely cover themselves with the stuff but leave small anal and breathing openings….Eating this sounds like an episode right out of ”Fear Factor“ (the show where contestants are forced to do fearful things like eating bug secretions). By the way, some other fun uses for your apple coating are rubber compounds, hat stiffeners, electrical insulating varnishes, playing card coatings, printing inks, gasket cements and nail varnishes. Um-Umm (thanks Vegan Society).

  Seems I’m more grossed out by this than the regulatory agencies involved. For one thing the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service is all excited by how well shellac works on food. It’s true, it does work at keeping the old looking new. Or said differently, it helps the fruit retain the qualities of fresh. Apparently from one report the reduced gas permeability from the coating is an indicator of quality retention. I guess if you want to pay less for an apple that’s been stored forever in a warehouse that’s you business. But I know that the apples I gave my kids should have been free from such stuff. Why can these growers put this on our food and not have something prominent like a sticker or something to share this information…Maybe if you knew what you were eating you wouldn’t buy it. Naaa.

  Now one argument you’ll hear is that there is just a drop of the stuff on an apple. Who cares, it won’t kill you etc etc. Well I care and I don’t know if it will help kill me, reduce my energy or anything. However, a thought experiment might shed some light on this issue of quantity. Let’s take an imaginary glass of wine (containing ethanol, a fairly good solvent), place it in front of a naysayer, add one drop of shellac to the glass and say “drink it” . Would they? Probably not. But maybe if they were very stubborn. However, it would be forced down, I guarantee it. And by the way, if there are any boneheads out there, do not do this. If you add a drop of Bulls Eye Shellac or any other shellac to someone else’s food you could poison them (for one thing the alcohol could be methanol instead of ethanol. Methanol attacks the optic nerve and does a lot of other bad things to humans). I hate to include such a statement but there are some pretty stupid people out there. Fortunately, the readers of this blog have higher IQs than most. But you never know when a member of the “it won’t kill ya” crowd will find this on a Google Search.

  So enough said. First conclusion, anything added to food should be prominently displayed. It’s our right to know what we’re putting into our bodies. Second, I am more convinced than ever that Organic Food is the way to go. Put the shellac on the door frame but leave my apple alone. I’ll take one that’s not all glammed up but is honest fresh every time. Fresh truly taste best and faux fresh fruit taste like the sorrow old thing that it is. So eat well, eat real and live naturally.