Jelly Bean Baffle

Yum, jelly beans! Every kid loves them, especially because they can pick out exactly which flavors they want to eat just by looking at the color.  Parents can give them in small portions, and they act as just the right treat (or wrong treat as you'll find out).

When you look at a jelly bean, you see that nice outer coating that keeps them pretty and shiny until they are eaten.  What that outer coating is made of, however, is definitely not pretty.  To say it in a straight forward way, the outer coating of a jelly bean is made of shellac, which is made of beetle poop. Yummy, right?

Here's what happens: Beetles, called lac bugs, poop on tree branches, and the poop forms into a cocoon like tunnel.  Insects get their nutrients from eating away at these tunnels.  Then, experts go in and scrape off the excretion.  It is heated and the pieces of tree and other bugs are extracted from the poop.  It is then dried flat, where it becomes known as shellac, and it is sold in stores.  Don't get me wrong, there are some good uses for shellac (like paint), but it probably isn't something that you would purposely put in your body.

Next time you're at the store and spot those delicious looking jelly beans, think before you splurge and end up having beetle poop as your treat.

Make sweet choices--in food and in life.

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