Organic Foods--are often coated with unlabeled stuff

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Curious?

Want to know what this unlabeled coating on our food is?

Read this:

Dude, That Isn’t Wax On Your Apple! (realitybloger.wordpress.com)

What if I told you that cow, pig, and chicken collagen is now used in place of wax on your fruits and vegetables, among many other  things much worse than you can probably imagine? . . . [and] all approved by the FDA. (Source)

Supposedly Edible Films–yum, yum, mmmmm good!

. . . here’s an excerpt from the article (linked above):

Table VI-3: “Commercially available modified atmosphere packaging systems for small and large quantities of produce”

Edible Films1
TAL Pro-Long (Courtaulds Group)	Blend of sucrose esters of fatty acids and sodium carboxymethylcellulose; depresses internal O2 and is edible.	Pears
Nutri-Save	N, O-carboxymethychitosan edible film.	Pears, apples
Semperfresh, Nu-Coat Fo, Ban-seel, Brilloshine, Snow-White and White Wash products (Surface Systems Intl. Ltd.)	Sucrose ester based fruit coatings with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose products manufactured exclusively from food ingredients available in dip or spray.	Most fruits and vegetables, processed and whole potatoes (Snow-White and White-Wash)
PacRite products (American Machinery Corp.)	Variety of products, water-based carnauba-shellac emulsions, shellac and resin water emulsions, water-based mineral oil fatty acid emulsions, and so forth.	Apples, citrus, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, squash, peaches, plums, nectarines
Fresh-Cote product line (Agri-Tech Inc.)	Variety of products including; shellac-based, carnauba-based and oil emulsion edible films.	Apples, pears, eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, stone fruits
Vector 7, Apl-Brite 300C, Citrus-Brite 300C (Solutec Corp.)	Vector 7 is a shellac-based film with morpholine; the Apl-Brite and Citrus-Brite are carnuba-based films.	Apples and citrus fruits
Primafresh Wax (S.C. Johnson)	Carnauba-based wax emulsion.	Apples, citrus and other firm-surfaced fruit
Shield-Brite products (Pace Intl. Shield-Brite)	Shellac, carnauba, natural wax and vegetable oil/wax and xanthan gum products.	Citrus, pears, stone fruit
Sta-Fresh Products (Food Machinery Corp.)	Natural, synthetic, and modified natural resin products and combinations thereof.	Citrus, apples, stone fruits, pomegranates, tomatoes, pineapple, cantaloupes, and sweet potatoes
Fresh Wax products (Fresh Mark Corp.)	Shellac and wood resin, oxidized polyethylene wax, white oil/paraffin wax products.	Citrus, cantaloupes, pineapples, apples, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables
Brogdex Co. products	Carnauba wax emulsions with or without fungicides, emulsion wax, high shine wax, water-based emulsion wax, carnauba-based emulsion, vegetable oil, resin-based and concentrated polyethylene emulsion wax products.	Apples, melons, bananas, avocado, chayote, papaya, mango, pineapple, citrus, stone fruits.
FreshSealTM (Planet Polymer Technologies Inc. has licensed CPG Technologies of Agway, Inc. to produce)	A patented coating that slows the ripening process by controlling the O2 and CO2 and water vapor flowing in and out of the product. It can be tailored to the individual respiration rates of different fruit and vegetable varieties.	Currently available for avocado, cantaloupe, mangoes and papaya. Use on limes, pineapples and bananas is currently under investigation.
Nature-SealTM , AgriCoat (Mantrose Bradshaw Zinsser Group)	Composite polysaccharide-based coating using cellulose derivatives as film formers.	Sliced apples, carrots, peppers, onions, lettuce, pears, avocados, sliced bananas
Intelligent Systems
Activated Earth Films	Typically polyethylene bags with powdered clay material made of powdered aluminum silicates, incorporated into the film matrix. Possibly reduces ethylene concentration by facilitating its diffusion out of the bag.	Variable
Temperature Responsive Films (Landec Labs)	Films increase their gas permeabilities in response to temperature increases as well as increases in respiration. Stabilizes the modified atmosphere so it remains the same under various temperatures.	Specific for each product
CO2 Scavengers FreshLock (Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co.), Verifrais (Codimer Tournessi, Gujan-Mestras)	Sachet type product which is placed directly in the package and absorbs both carbon dioxide and oxygen.	Fruits and vegetables, coffee
Ethylene absorbents Ethysorb (StayFresh Ltd), Ageless C (Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company), Freshkeep (Kurarey), Acepack (nippon Greener), Peakfresh (Klerk Plastic Industrie, Chantler Packaging Inc.)	Sachet type product which is placed directly in the package and absorbs ethylene. They are composed of a variety of products such as aluminum oxide, potassium permanganate, activated carbon, and silicon dioxide.	Fruits and vegetables
Antimicrobial Films-unsure of commercial availability

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Shellac: a resin secreted by the female lac bug.

Mmmmmmm, bug gooo, yummie.

Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes which are dissolved in ethyl alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish. Shellac functions as a tough natural primer, sanding sealant, tannin-blocker, odour-blocker, stain, and high-gloss varnish. Shellac was once used in electrical applications as it possesses good insulation qualities and it seals out moisture. Phonograph (gramaphone) records were also made of it during the pre-1950s, 78-rpm recording era.

Shellac is one of the few historically appropriate finishes (including casein paint, spar varnishes, boiled linseed oil and lacquer) for early 20th-century hardwood floors, and wooden wall and ceiling paneling.

From the time it replaced oil and wax finishes in the 19th century, shellac was one of the dominant wood finishes in the western world until it was replaced by nitrocellulose lacquer in the 1920s and 1930s.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac)

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