What do beavers and vanilla ice cream have in common?
Did you know that anal gland of a beaver provides a very common flavoring for many of your favorite foods? It is called Castoreum and tastes like vanilla. So it's manufactured and labeled to be sold and used in a variety of foods-- or used to be. It's expensive because, guess how they harvest it?
Now...that's good. We don't get it much anymore because it's hard to get. (No pun intended.)
I have two things to say about this.
#1. Who was the first person to find a beaver, complete the above process, and decide how delicious the product would be on almost EVERYTHING sweet we eat? This is worse than the guy who decided that the next thing to pop out of that chicken's bottom should be scrambled and eaten with a bit of salt. I mean... really? Where do these thoughts happen!?
#2. Why must this be done...? I mean, imitation vanilla is actually happy juice of a beaver-- but yet we have plenty of opportunites to get NATURAL vanilla? That is REAL? WHY?!
They say that you learn something new everyday, but some days, I prefer to hibernate than learn facts like these. After some research though, snopes provided that it was truth. NPR stated that while it is true, it is so expensive that it is rarely ever used. Only 300 pounds of beaver extract was produced in 2004. Not so much for the food industry.
But think about it... 300 POUNDS of beaver happy juice. Bet they weren't that happy after that.
Did animal cruelty ever get after these extractors?
The people over at GentleWorld.org were not too excited about the production of castoreum--read here.
It just doesn't seem like this is something that would be used to benefit society. It's not like eating candies flavored with castoreum cured cancer or anything. It just tasted good. So we killed almost an entire population of beavers for it.
This might be a bit of hype over a flavoring that isn't used much anymore, but it still means that there are things that manufacturers do that we are unaware of. Always read labels, and research ingredients you don't know. It's not being picky, it's being smart. These products are going into your body, you have a right to know what they are and where they come from. Or if anyone or anything is harmed in the process. Knowledge is power!
Guess I had more than 2 things to say...
Vanilla Cupcake, anyone?
