By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS
Is your favourite cup of mojo actually vegan, brewed with espresso beans not coated with the insect secretion shellac? Our analysis into over 15 corporations affirms it more than likely is.
What Is Shellac?
Additionally known as lac resin or confectioner’s glaze, shellac is harvested from bugs in Southeast Asia. In accordance with a 2024 Enterprise Insider report, India is the world’s largest producer, exporting over $65 million yearly of a worldwide market value practically $170 million. The US is the world’s largest importer, shopping for 25% of India’s provide.
One pound of shellac comprises the resin from roughly 150,000 bugs. Conventional farmers can gather that amount in a day, however want two extra days to scrape it manually off of tree branches. The acute warmth and floods of the local weather disaster brings uncertainty to the harvest resulting in main worth fluctuations. At the moment, industrial manufacturing of shellac is changing age-old strategies.
The most typical meals use for shellac accredited by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) is as a shiny, water-and mold-resistant coating on a variety of meals together with:
- fruit and veggies
- nuts
- espresso beans
- chocolate
- confections (for instance, jelly beans or sweet corn)
On citrus fruits and on greens corresponding to cucumbers, bell peppers, or eggplant, this edible coating helps retain firmness, reduces shriveling, and will increase shelf life. As a coating, shellac is often blended with both a plant- or petroleum-derived wax.
Different FDA-approved meals makes use of for shellac, both as a part of a combination or alone, embrace:
Shellac can also be used as a coating on some prescribed drugs particularly enteric or time launch tablets or as a meals dye. It have to be labeled, normally as shellac or confection’’s glaze, when current though many different names for shellac are permissible as listed in our Information to Vegan and Vegetarian Meals Substances.
Shellac on Espresso Beans
In 2010 and 2011, The VRG reported that shellac was not generally used on espresso beans. On this 2025 replace, we surveyed shut to twenty espresso corporations, each main manufacturers and small specialty companies, to see if that is nonetheless true.
Primarily based on e mail responses and cellphone conversations with a lot of the respondents, we report that, on the whole, the pattern continues. A number of didn’t present clear responses as famous beneath.
The VRG additionally contacted a number of Indian corporations promoting shellac in Could 2025. We requested them in the event that they knew of any corporations coating espresso beans with shellac. Sumeet Agrawal of D. Manoharial (Shellac) Pvt. Ltd. wrote in an e mail that “…we don’t have any clients utilizing shellac for that goal.”
The VRG Investigation Course of: Shellac
We recognized the most well-liked espresso manufacturers by means of a Google search and an off-the-cuff survey. Utilizing firm web site contact kinds or emails, we requested one query in July and August 2025: Do any of your suppliers coat their espresso beans with shellac?
We requested the query on this means to make sure corporations think about what occurs to the espresso beans earlier than arriving within the U.S. Though corporations could not apply shellac as soon as the espresso beans are stateside, worldwide suppliers may have coated their espresso beans of their nation of origin in an effort to make them extra proof against mildew and moisture throughout transport.
Many of the corporations responded immediately to the query in a well timed method. If they didn’t, we known as them. Here’s a record of these espresso corporations which informed us by e mail or cellphone that their suppliers don’t coat the espresso beans with shellac. In addition they identified that they don’t apply shellac upon arrival:
- Folger’s
- Tim Horton’s
- Lavazza
- Keurig
- Peet’s Espresso
- Intelligentsia Espresso
- Stumptown Espresso Roasters
- Don Pablo Espresso
- Free Rein Espresso
- Bean Field
- Philly Honest Commerce
The next manufacturers didn’t clearly reply about their suppliers’ practices of their first e mail reply or cellphone name nor once we requested for clarification in a follow-up e mail:
- Maxwell Home
- Starbuck’s
- Dunkin’ Donuts
- Caribou Espresso
- Counter Tradition Espresso
The next manufacturers didn’t reply:
Equal Trade spoke on behalf of all of their espresso cooperative companions and wrote to us in June 2025: “The beans we purchase from small farmer cooperatives are shipped unroasted or ‘inexperienced’ and no shellac or every other coating is used. We roast the espresso at our roastery at our headquarters in Massachusetts and the flavored and non-organic espresso is roasted for us in a separate facility and no shellac is utilized in both facility.”
Maxwell Home
We known as in July 2025 and spoke for nearly 40 minutes. The consultant scoured her database utilizing a number of completely different search phrases, however didn’t find any definitive assertion about shellac. She was in a position to say they used “100% espresso beans.” She additionally asserted that “no components” had been used. Though each of those phrases counsel no shellac had been used, we can’t be completely positive with no definitive assertion like different espresso corporations supplied.
Once we requested if she may escalate our query to a R&D or QA division, provide chain supervisor, or supervisor, we had been informed there was no means of doing so.
If the corporate sends us extra data, we are able to replace this text.
Shellac within the European Union
The European Meals Security Authority (EFSA) Panel on Meals Components and Flavourings reviewed the standing of shellac as a meals additive in 2024. The Panel really helpful to the European Fee that shellac specs corresponding to permissible quantities allowable for meals use be revised “…relying on the manufacturing course of, chemical bleaching course of and bodily decolouring course of, as a result of they lead to completely different impurities in shellac.” There have been a number of poisonous chemical substances, together with the neurotoxin lead and sure carcinogen chloroform detected in shellac. The Panel states the toxins have to be quantified for every manufacturing course of earlier than suggestions could be made about shellac for meals use.
To the most effective of our information, no comparable overview of meals grade shellac is underway within the U.S.
Is Shellac Kosher?
There’s disagreement within the Jewish group in regards to the kosher standing of shellac. In accordance with a 2023 article within the Let’s Speak Kashrus column reprinted on the web site of the Chicago Rabbinical Council, shellac is taken into account kosher within the U.S.:
“…Shellac, which is a byproduct of the forbidden insect is handled in another way than gelatin constructed from non-kosher bones or carmine made by crushing cochineal beetles. Gelatin and carmine are constructed from the precise forbidden merchandise, and, due to this fact, their standing is stricter than shellac, which is only a byproduct.”
Shellac and Espresso Beans Abstract
Primarily based on our analysis, The VRG can report that shellac just isn’t used on the espresso beans of most of the corporations surveyed for this text. Our August 2025 article on Folger’s Espresso particulars our communication with that firm.
Nevertheless, there might be a espresso firm not included right here which makes use of shellac. In case you are eager about buying espresso beans which seem like particularly shiny or glazed, we recommend you inquire about shellac earlier than shopping for. In the event you see shellac labeled on a bag of espresso beans, please tell us at [email protected].
For extra ingredient data, see https://www.vrg.org/substances/index.php
To assist VRG analysis, donate at www.vrg.org/donate
Or be a part of at www.vrg.org/member
The contents of this posting, our e mail, our web site and our different publications, together with Vegan Journal, usually are not supposed to supply private medical recommendation. Medical recommendation must be obtained from a certified well being skilled. We regularly rely on product and ingredient data from firm statements. It’s not possible to be 100% positive a couple of assertion, data can change, folks have completely different views, and errors could be made. Please use your finest judgment about whether or not a product is appropriate for you. To make certain, do additional analysis or affirmation by yourself.
