Mary Fisher wrote in message
...

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 11:04:24 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

Is it really carnauba?

Carnauba used to be one ingredient - it gives a higher shine. Since
we started to care about eating fruit coated with furniture polish,
the shops have toned down the shininess of it. Some was candelilla
instead of carnauba as this is even harder and shinier. They're both
still used on some sweets or pills.

I believe it's sprayed on as a water emulsion, heated to keep it
flowing.

So it must contain an emulsifier too? And if so it can be washed off ...
but
it can't in my experience.
The wax flakes for fruit are pre-coated with an emulsifier so that they can
just be stirred into hot water to form the emulsion. The coating it produces
has no resistance to water so can easily be washed off.
Don't know what your experience consists of but, if beeswax comes into the
equation, you would have something more water resistant.
None of the hard vegetable waxes, carnauba, candelilla, esparto are much use
as a coating on their own, all being virtually insoluble in anything at room
temperature. Used a lot in the paper and cosmetic industries I believe.