Coatings on fresh citrus fruit
Coatings on fresh citrus fruitThis listing covers the wax and resin coatings applied to citrus after harvest. Washing removes the fruit's own wax, so a replacement is applied to stop it drying out — the shine on a supermarket orange is added, not natural.
Where it is and isn’t permitted
| Jurisdiction | Status | Scope and limits | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Permitted, with conditions | 21 CFR 172.210retrieved 2026-09-07 | |
| Codex Alimentarius | Not listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited. |
What it is made from
Formulated from waxes, resins and shellac. Shellac is an insect secretion, so a coated fruit is not necessarily vegan, and coatings are not always declared on unpackaged produce.
- Vegan status depends on the source
- Vegetarian status depends on the source
- May raise a halal question
- May raise a kosher question
This is not an omission. What this additive is made from is not fixed — depending on the manufacturer it may be plant, animal or microbial in origin, nobody is required to say which, and the same product can change source between production runs. Ask the manufacturer if it matters to you; a label cannot answer it.
Every name it appears under
1 recorded name. A label may use any of them.
As it appears in regulation
- Coatings on fresh citrus fruit
Hazard reference values
No reference value for this substance in the sources we hold.
Evidence and how bodies read it
Studies, and the differing conclusions regulators drew from them, are curated by hand rather than machine-read, and none has been written for this substance yet.
Sources for this page
- ecfr retrieved 2026-09-07
Full licence terms and publisher details on Sources. How this page is built and updated: Method.
Machine-readable:/api/v1/additives/coatings-on-fresh-citrus-fruit.json