Kid safe finish?

Matt, you're likely to hear all sorts of arguments, but pretty much any membrane finish is food-safe after it is fully cured. Personally, I'd put a coat of something tough (like water-based poly) on the toys, let 'em cure for a few days (most sources I've seen say three days is plenty), and call it good.

Shellac is another possibility (they use shellac as a coating on some pharmaceuticals), but it's not nearly as durable, IMHO.
 
Matt......it's my understanding that all finishes that are available today are Kid Safe once they are cured.

Vaughn's right however......shellac....used as a coating on drugs and candies....M&Ms IIRC.

One thing nice about dewaxed shellac....it will stick to anything and anything will stick to it. I use it on my turnings...use BLO to pop the grain.....dewaxed shellac over that and often followed by Deft wiping lacquer for a more durable finish.
 
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In fact most chocolate is coated in Shellac, as well as most pills.

It is, after all, 100% natural! :D

Mmm, dunno... :dunno: inquiring minds want to know.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_118.html
"The rumor is that the coating is made from a secretion of the lac beetle, the same insects used to make a well-known floor coating. Aha, you think, M&Ms don't melt in your hand because they paint 'em with shellac! Worth a giggle (maybe), but untrue. The folks at M&M/Mars say the coating is a mixture of sugar and corn syrup that is buffed to a high sheen by tumbling the M&Ms together during manufacture."

Is shellac made from sugar and corn syrup?

Of course, what else is M&M going to say? "Yes, consumers, those candies you know and love so much are coated with a synthetic material..." ;)

--MJ
 
:)
Quien sabe????????????????
Hola Ken,

No se. :dunno: Algunos personas desde straightdope.com. :) Sin embargo, mira aqui: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=810275
donde escriben:

"Interesting about M&M's. My brother worked at an M&M plant and was able to take me through it while M&M's were being made. (Wasn't supposed to but he was high enough up that he got me in). Unbelievable how many steps go into making an "M" as he called them.....and the volume - 22 tons per shift, three shifts and seven days/week. We started at the place where little brown pills (reminded me of a goat pasture ) were rolling down a belt. Then this was done and then that; quite a number of steps. I picked one off the line here and there in the process and the taste was not like an "M" until the very last....that's how the formulation was worked out. The last thing - the glossy coating ? - carnuba wax (car wax)."

Ay carumba! Carnuba??? Oy vey (no es espanol, verdad?).

--MJ (hablo espanol quando necessito saber)
 
Interesting. I know the internet is great for spreading rumors that soon become "truth". My apologies for repeating something I'd heard.:eek:
 
Interesting. I know the internet is great for spreading rumors that soon become "truth". My apologies for repeating something I'd heard.:eek:

LOL-- you know, Ken, the funny part is the coating could still be shellac, as these write-ups are both forms of company spin! :D One of those "it all depends who you ask" things, and Mars would be loath to admit they shellac their candies. :p An interesting peek at the corporate side of goodies.

Shellac or not, I still like my M&Ms, particularly the peanut. Keep me away from those. :)

--MJ
 
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"Is shellac made from sugar and corn syrup?"


MJ,

Go over to one of your house plants. Preferably a citrus or a palm. Now look closely... you'll see a bunch of little bumps... about 1/8" long... kinda like barnacles. They're actually bugs, with a hard outer shell. Pluck one off. They're sticky. It gets on your hands. That bug sweat is shellac. There are trees in india just covered with the relatives of those guys. Imagine being the people who spend their lives harvesting those things... ;)

What we slather onto wood is actually bug sweat dissolved in alcohol. Charming, eh? ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerria_lacca

Thanks,

Bill
 
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It's pure coincidence of course that I have some M&M's handy ;), so here's what the ingredient list says: Milk chocolate (sugar, chocolate, milk, cocoa butter, lactose, soy lecithin, salt, artificial flavors), sugar, less than 0.5%: coloring (includes yellow 5 lake, red 40 lake, blue 1 lake), cornstarch, corn syrup, dextrin. Contains milk and soybean ingredients.

Yuck. :p At least I don't see anything called confectioner's glaze, but I will watch for that on candy boxes. (Thanks for the info, Dick! :))

Here's some information about shellac coatings on food from Wikipedia. The page for confectioner's glaze forwards to a pharmaceutical glaze entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_glaze

Double Yuck. :p :p

Always looking for the bright side ;), I found a fun page that talks about how M&M's are actually made: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/M-M-Candy.html

Cool factoids:

1) M&M's were first manufactured in 1940.

2) Plain M&Ms' are proportioned (approximately) as follows: 30% brown; 20% yellow; 20% red; 10% green; 10% orange; 10% blue. Peanut M&Ms' are 20% brown; 20% yellow; 20% red; 20% blue; 10% green; and 10% orange. Peanut Butter Chocolate M&Ms® and Almond M&Ms® have even proportions (20% each) of yellow, red, green, blue, and brown.

3) During panning, the chocolates are rotated in large containers as liquid candy made of sugar and corn syrup is sprayed onto them. The coats are sprayed on rotating chocolates at timed intervals. These intervals allow each coat to dry. Each coat leaves an even layer, a shell, of dry candy substance. The chocolate centers receive several coatings to ensure a uniform, complete coat on every piece.

I'm still mildly suspicious... but that won't stop me from eating them, especially the red ones. :)

--MJ
 
Of course there is always the possibility that the shellac coated M&Ms fable actually came from a prior truth. They may have, at one time, been coated with shellac, but the shellac was replaced by a cheaper alternative. :thumb: Not saying that is the case, but it could be. Shellac is said to have/had a number of uses in food production.
 
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