Beaver butts emit goo used in vanilla flavored foods

[mrclose]

Well there is Science in here somewhere!

Good Morning all you vanilla flavored coffee drinkers! 

Next time you pick up a vanilla candy, think twice. A chemical compound used in vanilla flavored foods and scents comes from the butt of a beaver.

Castoreum comes from a beaver's castor sacs, located between the pelvis and base of the tail. Due to its proximity to the anal glands, the slimy brown substance is often mixed with gland secretions and urine.

"I lift up the animal's tail," Joanne Crawford, a wildlife ecologist at Southern Illinois University told National Geographic. "I’m like, 'Get down there, and stick your nose near its bum.'"

"People think I'm nuts," she added. "I tell them, 'Oh, but it's beavers; it smells really good.'"

Beavers use the brown slime, often compared to a thinner version of molasses, to mark their territory. The musky, vanilla scent is attributed to a beaver's diet of bark and leaves.

Manufacture have been using castoreum as an additive in foods and perfumes for at least 80 years, according to a 2007 study in the International Journal of Toxicology.

But getting a beaver to emit castoreum is not easy. Foodies are willing to "milk" the animals in order to get their hands on the gooey substance.

"You can milk the anal glands so you can extract the fluid," Crawford said. "You can squirt [castoreum] out. It's pretty gross."

Only 292-pounds per year is collected because the milking method is unpleasant for all parties involved.

And the worst part? The FDA-approved castoreum is not required to be listed as an ingredient on food items. Manufacturers may list "natural flavoring" instead.

Perhaps a bit too natural for us

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/10/02/beaver-butts-emit-goo-used-in-vanilla-flavored-foods/?intcmp=features

[aligncare]

 

[Olivia]

I DID NOT NEED TO KNOW THIS!!   

[andy58-in-nh]

"People think I'm nuts," she added. "I tell them, 'Oh, but it's beavers; it smells really good.'"

One wonders, reasonably, just how she knows this.

[alicewonders]

Here I've been avoiding "artificial" vanilla foods and going for the "natural" flavors!  Ewwwwww!

[Olivia]

I don't really want to ask this question but here goes:

If a beaver's castor sacs contain vanilla and it goes into our food, then where do we get the vanilla bean? 

[andy58-in-nh]

I don't really want to ask this question but here goes:

If a beaver's castor sacs contain vanilla and it goes into our food, then where do we get the vanilla bean?

 
Dammed if I know.

[alicewonders]

I don't really want to ask this question but here goes:

If a beaver's castor sacs contain vanilla and it goes into our food, then where do we get the vanilla bean?

I think the article said the beaver butt goo tasted and smelled LIKE vanilla, the actual real vanilla bean (which is where real vanilla comes from) actually comes from an orchid plant.

[mountaineer]

Manufacture have been using castoreum as an additive in foods and perfumes for at least 80 years

Don't want to know how this was discovered or who was the first to stick his nose into a beaver's behind.   

[alicewonders]

Don't want to know how this was discovered or who was the first to stick his nose into a beaver's behind.   

Speaking of "dirty jobs" - I wouldn't want to be the guy that has to "extract" this product. 

[mountaineer]

Indeed. Did Mike Rowe ever do this?
Ewww.

[Oceander]

Those with weak stomaches should never look into how any of their food if produced, no matter how seemingly innocuous that food is.  Consider what the ground flour used to make your bread almost certainly contains, things such as tons of bugs that got caught up in the wheat as it was reaped and siloed, and then ground right along with the wheat itself.  Quite honestly, however, once it's been cooked, it's nothing more than a little extra helping of protein.

[aligncare]

...yep. And if the cooking doesn't kill it the chemical incinerator that is our stomach will.

[Oceander]

...yep. And if the cooking doesn't kill it the chemical incinerator that is our stomach will.

For the most part!