Help! How long stays a gelatine heart edible??

Sarina Reilingh

Hi guys!
It's the first time I'm casting an edible heart for a short movie. I made a food approved silicone mold and did some casting tests with gelatine, glycerine, water and food colouring. They turned out pretty cool, but now I'm wondering for how long these hearts will be "edible". The final hearts need to be shipped from Holland to the UK and then to Iceland.. They won't be "eaten" in about 2 / 2,5 weeks after casting and I really don't want to give the actor some sort of food poisoning... 

Any of you with experience on this? I have quite a tight deadline and need to fix this problem as soon as I can.

Thank you in advance..!
Cheers,
Sarina

Chris Ellerby

Hi Sarina,

I did a bit of googling but have not been able to find any information about the shelf life of gelatin after it's been mixed.  

Always important to keep safety in mind, especially when it comes to ingesting things.

Doe the actors need to chew and swallow the chunks they bite off, or is it something they can spit out? Either way it's good to know how long the material is safe to consume, as even if they spit it out they are likely to ingest some of it.

If you find the answer please let us know, I'm pretty curious about this one.

Thanks,

/Chris

Joel Goodpaster

Will these be like a gummy bear?  The recipe is almost  the same. If that is the case,  items like that  can last several months when stored properly. Heat, moisture, and light will greatly decrease the edible life.   

 In shipping, I think condensation would be  the biggest issue.   The information I found  was for homemade  gelatin based candies which have additional ingredients that might be more time sensitive. Overall it looks like 2-3 weeks is well within a safe time.   You may be better off contacting the manufacturer  for a final word.