In elementary school I remember meeting kids who played with bugs. These were probably the same children who ate glue and sat in the corner secluded for large periods of time. While they surely grew up to be normal adults and probably top-notch scientists, you couldn’t force me to play with them. It isn’t just that their behavior was odd but it was also downright gross. They literally took pleasure in smashing bugs with their bare hands.
As grossed out as I am by cockroaches and other crawling creatures (like the spider I had to get off my ceiling last night), I’ve begun to realize that bugs don’t just crawl on the equipment used in large facilities to make food but they are also purposely used to create ingredients in our food supply. Take cochineal (aka carmine), a red food coloring made from bugs (see my previous post on this). And yesterday I was immediately suspect when I closely examined the ingredients on a tasty, high fiber nutrition bar to find the word “shellac.” Shellac is something I associate as a clear coating on hardwood floors, not a food ingredient.
So today I did a little digging to find out what that shellac is made from. Shellac is secreted from a female mite-sized beetle to help make cocoons that hold their eggs to the bark on trees in India and Thailand. After being processed, shellac is made into a food glaze or “edible film” (aka “confectioners glaze) that is used to coat candy, especially chocolate-covered nuts. It holds a nice gloss or finish and doesn’t get dull or sticky. Shellac also improves the shelf life of candy.
Shellac isn’t just used on chocolate covered nuts but it is also used as a coating on various supplements to help them slide down your throat easily. And while it sounds pretty gross, it is FDA approved. You can now make your own decision on whether or not you’ll eat bars and candy with shellac (or it may be listed as confectioners glaze on the ingredient list) on them.
Right now, I am just a bit grossed out but then again, I stopped eating hot dogs at age 15 once I found out what is in them (and if I ever eat a hog dog again you better bet it will be Kosher).
So what ever happened to those little kids in my kindergarden class? My guess is they are in some other country examining food grade uses for bug parts.