Scholars differ. It is unambiguously insect-derived with no plant version, so the question is what position you hold on insects — not what the product contains.

Is shellac treated the same as carmine?

Not always. Shellac is a secretion rather than the insect body, and several scholars who consider carmine impermissible permit shellac on that distinction.

What is "confectioner's glaze"?

Usually shellac. The alias exists because "insect resin" is not a marketing phrase.

Are waxed apples a concern?

Sometimes. Supermarket fruit is often coated, and the coating may be shellac or carnauba. Loose unwaxed fruit avoids the question entirely.

Carmine, Shellac and Cochineal: The Insect Ingredients in Sweets and Cosmetics

One makes things red, the other makes them shiny. Both come from insects, both are extremely common, and unlike most ambiguous ingredients there is no plant-derived version to hope for.

4 min read · updated 2026-09-08

Most ingredient questions are questions of ambiguity: the label says something that could be plant or animal, and you cannot tell. Carmine and shellac are different. When they are present, you know exactly what they are. The only question is what you think about it.

Carmine — the red one

Carmine, also written as cochineal, carminic acid, Natural Red 4, or E120, is a pigment made from the cochineal insect, a scale insect farmed on cactus in Peru and the Canary Islands. The insects are collected, dried and crushed; the resulting acid produces a deep, stable red that synthetic dyes struggle to match for richness.

It takes roughly 70,000 insects to produce a pound of dye, which is why it is expensive and why it appears mostly in products where colour quality justifies the cost.

Where you will meet it:

Lipstick, blusher and cream cosmetics — one of the largest uses.
Strawberry and raspberry yoghurts, particularly premium ones.
Fruit juices, smoothies and some fruit-flavoured drinks.
Sweets, especially red and pink ones, and some ice creams.
Occasionally in medicines and vitamin coatings.

Shellac — the shiny one

Shellac, E904, is a resin secreted by the lac insect onto tree branches in India and Thailand. It is scraped off, processed and dissolved, and it produces a hard, glossy, food-safe coating. It is also the traditional finish on wooden furniture and, historically, the material gramophone records were made from.

Where you will meet it:

Coated chocolate sweets and jelly beans — the glaze that makes them shine.
Waxed apples and citrus in supermarkets, where it appears as "confectioner's glaze" or "food glaze".
Tablet and capsule coatings.
Nail products and some hair sprays.

Its aliases are worth knowing because "shellac" often does not appear: confectioner's glaze, resinous glaze, food glaze, pharmaceutical glaze, and simply "glazing agent".

The ruling question

Insects sit in a genuinely disputed area of Islamic jurisprudence, and the disagreement is old rather than modern:

One position holds that insects other than locusts are impermissible to consume, which makes carmine impermissible outright.
A second distinguishes between eating the insect and using a substance secreted by it. On this reasoning shellac — a secretion, like honey — is treated differently from carmine, which is the crushed insect itself.
A third applies the transformation argument, holding that processing has changed the substance sufficiently.

What to look for instead

Where a manufacturer has avoided them, they usually say so:

Reds from beetroot (E162), paprika extract (E160c), anthocyanins (E163) or lycopene (E160d) — all plant.
Synthetic reds such as Allura Red (E129) — no animal or insect content, though some avoid them for other reasons.
Glazes from carnauba wax (E903, from palm leaves), beeswax (E901, itself a secretion and subject to a similar debate) or vegetable-based coatings.
A vegan mark resolves both ingredients at once, since neither qualifies.

Cosmetics are the blind spot

Most people who check food labels carefully do not check lipstick, and carmine is heavily used there. If your practice covers what goes on the lips as well as in the mouth, cosmetics deserve the same read — the ingredient will be listed as CI 75470 under cosmetic labelling conventions rather than as E120.

How we handle it

Carmine, cochineal, E120 and CI 75470 are flagged in our screen, across food and personal care. Shellac and its aliases are flagged too. Because the underlying rulings differ and we do not issue rulings, a product declaring either is held rather than posted, so the decision stays with you rather than being made silently on your behalf.

Beeswax, and why it sits differently

Beeswax (E901) comes up in the same conversations and belongs in the same category as shellac rather than carmine: it is a secretion rather than the insect itself, and it is produced without harming the colony. Most scholars permit it, and honey — also an insect product — is explicitly praised in the Qur'an, which is the usual reference point when this is discussed. If you have concluded that shellac is acceptable on the secretion argument, beeswax follows the same reasoning.

Common questions

Is carmine halal?: Scholars differ. It is unambiguously insect-derived with no plant version, so the question is what position you hold on insects — not what the product contains.
Is shellac treated the same as carmine?: Not always. Shellac is a secretion rather than the insect body, and several scholars who consider carmine impermissible permit shellac on that distinction.
What is "confectioner's glaze"?: Usually shellac. The alias exists because "insect resin" is not a marketing phrase.
Are waxed apples a concern?: Sometimes. Supermarket fruit is often coated, and the coating may be shellac or carnauba. Loose unwaxed fruit avoids the question entirely.