While eating an overly shiny red apple (New York State grown Empire) earlier today I read the fine print label on the bag. I found knowledge. Knowledge that everyone else may already know,a commonly known fact that for some reason had passed me by in the normal ebb and flow of day to day operational knowledge.
I use shellac regularly as a finish on furniture and considered myself familiar with it, but one never knows. Shellac finish is a liquid denatured alcohol-based solution of pure lac, a natural resin secreted by tiny insects on certain trees. It is available in Clear and Amber.
My shiny red apple however was “shellacked” Food-grade shellac, which also comes from a secretion of the lac bug (sounds like the same stuff to me) found in India and Pakistan. In the tablet manufacture trade, it is sometimes referred to as "beetlejuice" for this reason. These waxes are also approved for use as food additives for candy and pastries. The commercial waxes do not easily wash off because they adhere to any natural wax remaining on the fruit after cleaning. Waxed produce can be scrubbed with a vegetable brush briefly in lukewarm water and rinsed before eating to remove wax and surface dirt.
What,lac facts
--On 26th July 1989, the United States & Drugs Administration published a proposed rule, for affirming that shellac and shellac wax, were generally recognized as safe (GRAS), with specific limitations for use as a direct human food additive. The shellac would have to be, of appropriate food grade. Substances approved for addition to foods by the US FDA are listed in Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR). Shellac is regulated as an Indirect Food Additive in 21 CFR §175.105 (Adhesives) and §175.300 (Resinous & Polymeric Coatings).
--The normally amber coloured resin can also be bleached with sodium hypochlorite to obtain bleached lac, which is white in colour. Bleached lac has specialized demand for coating medicinal tablets, confectioneries etc.
--Lac Resin (a polyester complex of straight-chain hydroxy fatty acids and sesquiterpenic acids) 68 %
--Since lac insects are cultured on host trees which are growing primarily in wasteland areas, promotion of lac and its culture can help in eco-system development as well as reasonably high economic returns.
note : this information is from a national shellac trade promotion group
http://www.usapple.org/consumers/wax.cfm
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