Using pine resin on beeswax wraps

Recently our Simple Living Toowoomba group had a workshop showing us how to make beeswax wraps. Of course beeswax is used to coat the fabric but to make it stick much better pine resin is added as well. One of my friends sent me a link to an article called Why we don't sell gum rosin/tree resin for your beeswax wraps. I forwarded the link onto Suanne from Green Dandelion who presented our workshop and sells the equipment needed to make your own wraps as I knew she had her finger on the pulse and would have looked into this issue beforehand. She emailed me back and is happy for me to share the information she sent.

 

Here is her reply:

 

 

'The natural pine resin we use is food grade and commonly used in food items such as chewing gum. There are no problems with fumes as you are not heating the wax mixture above 200 degrees, especially if you use the double boiler method to melt it. As a precaution, I do advise people to turn on their stove vents and ensure the room is well ventilated by opening windows and doors.

 The amount of resin per wraps is almost negligible, as we only add 40 gms to the mixture which has a total weight of 280gms. Say you use 10gms of mixture, there would only be 1.4 gms of resin present in the wrap, this is about ¼ of a teaspoon. As long as the wrap is not exposed to heat when in contact with food, there should be negligible transference of the mixture to your food and therefore no resin ingested. I would also advise maintaining the integrity of the coating on the wrap by recoating once it is starting to crack or crumble or not maintain a good seal.

 I hope this alleviates any concerns. We also make wraps without pine resin on occasion and I am happy to make a mix without pine resin if people would like it. The wraps just won't stick and seal quite as well but are otherwise perfectly fine. I actually like them for mushrooms, pumpkin, fresh bread on the bench, platters waiting to go out, etc'.

 

Many thanks to Suanne for clarifying that if anyone is a bit dubious about using the pine resin.  

We are off to the beach for a holiday next week if I ever get around to packing that is. I am giving a family member a whalewatch cruise for an upcoming birthday so the tickets have been bought as well as 50+ sunscreen, a wide brimmed hat and seasickness tablets! The last time I went on a boat any bigger than the Brisbane City Cats I was sea sick for two days of the three day trip. I was a teenager then so that is a long time ago but it is etched in my memory never to be forgotten :-)  Hopefully the whales will be travelling along the coast but I believe we get a refund if there aren't any to be seen on the day. 

Have a great weekend everyone!