SC - Clementines and possibly toxic coatings

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hullo, the list!

Well, I did a little informal research at a bunch of local stores
selling clementines. What I found was that Spanish clementines (maybe
because they travel further?) seem most often to be coated with a
protective layer of crud, while South American and Israeli clementines
seem to tend not to be.

What the labels read on the boxes that mentioned a coating was something
like, "This product is coated with a non-toxic layer of food-grade
beeswax or other vegetable-based tallow or shellac resin to preserve freshness."

I get the impression that the coatings are listed in descending order of
prominence or common-ness. I also vaguely recall that while shellac was
originally made from insects, like cochineal, this may not be the same
thing, as it specifies it is a resin, which suggests to me, with my
limited bio knowledge, that it's a vegetable product. FWIW, I also seem
to recall that shellac is water soluble.

I'm surprised carnauba wax isn't one of them, unless it's one of those
vegetable-based tallows.

Adamantius 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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