Fruit and Kashrut: Not All That Shines Is Gold

For some reason, we've become accustomed to consuming fruits only when they're shiny and gleaming. If we encounter a matte-colored apple, we immediately assume it's second-rate, never considering that this might be its natural appearance, as sold in many countries around the world. Because of this expectation, fruit marketers make sure to present us with only glossy, shining apples. However, not all that glitters is gold, and not all that shines is kosher.

Beeswax, or more commonly known as wax - raises an interesting question: can it be used to coat food items for the purpose of making them shine, and is it even permissible to consume? Let's explain. We all know that honey is permitted for consumption even though it comes from an impure animal, and anything that comes from an impure source is considered impure and forbidden to eat. Nevertheless, the Torah permits honey because bees have two types of stomachs - one for digesting their food, and another that serves as a storage point for the nectar they collect until it's stored in the hive. The nectar doesn't undergo any fundamental change until it becomes honey, even though initially the nectar is full of liquids and later turns into a viscous liquid as honey. This happens only because the bee manages to separate water from sugar without changing any of the nectar's components.

In contrast, the production process of wax is vastly different. Wax is a fat compound created through the complete breakdown of sugar in the bee's blood through a biochemical process. It's also secreted from a different gland located in the lower part of the bee's abdomen, not from the same gland where the bee produces honey. So even though we permit honey because it doesn't undergo changes in the bee's stomach, we cannot permit wax that is produced from the body of the bee, which is considered an impure insect.

Indeed, some kashrut organizations have completely forbidden the use of beeswax for polishing apples. However, most rabbinic authorities permit wax for consumption for various reasons. The most prominent reasons are that wax itself, without being mixed with natural honey, is not considered edible due to its bitter taste, and is very similar in its components to royal jelly, which was permitted by Maran zt"l. Furthermore, wax is not considered food but rather a dry, tasteless substance, and even for the bee, wax is considered complete waste. Let's not forget that there are opinions that permit honey consumption for entirely different reasons - there is a specific verse permitting honey, which includes wax in its allowance.

Shellac - is a sticky plastic material used for coating food items and is very common worldwide. Shellac is produced by millimeter-sized insects that grow on trees in India or Thailand. These insects suck the tree sap, which serves as raw material for producing stick lac by adding fats and chemicals from their bodies. This sticky material serves as their adhesive to hold onto the tree, as a place to lay eggs, and as protection against pests. From a halachic and scientific perspective, the secreted material is a new substance created by impure insects that are forbidden for consumption and is not tree resin at all. After the stick lac layer forms on the tree, the sticky material is scraped off and heated to about 180 degrees Celsius to clean it, which creates a kashrut problem since the insect fat and larvae are cooked with the sticky liquid. Additionally, after heating, the stick lac undergoes cleaning and dissolving in alcohol that isn't necessarily kosher. Only in the final stage is a powder obtained for polishing, called shellac. Therefore, extra caution is needed so that candies, chewing gum, and especially apples don't undergo shellac polishing.

Today, in Israel, apples are polished with vegetable wax, produced mainly from legumes, due to increased demand from meticulous kashrut organizations. However, in other countries around the world, there is no supervision at all on apple polishing, so unless there is kosher certification for the apple peel, there is no way to eat apples without removing their outer peel.