Confectioner's Glaze

Q. What is confectioner’s glaze, and is it kosher?

A. Confectioner’s glaze, also known as shellac, is a resin secreted by the female lac insect. Shellac is commonly used as a wood varnish and it is also used as a coating on candies. Rav Moshe Feinstein (Igeros Moshe Y.D. 2:24) offers several reasons why shellac is permitted for food use. The most basic justification is because shellac is inedible and is only applied to the surface of the food to produce a shine.

However, Rav Elyashiv zt”l questioned the permissibility of shellac. He argued that although shellac is inedible, it should have the same status as the insect from which it came. The insect is inedible, and yet the Torah forbids it, and the same should apply to shellac.

Rav Belsky zt”l agreed with Igeros Moshe that shellac is permitted. He explained that shellac is what the gemarah refers to as “pirsha”, which means a “waste product”, of the beetle. There are many poskim who write that waste products of insects are permitted, such as the Maharam Chaviv (84:37). Teshuvos Ginas V’radim (2:16) ruled that silk is permitted even though it is produced by silkworms, because it is a waste product. In many ways, shellac is similar to bee’s wax which is also an insect secretion, and many poskim write that it is permitted.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.