Just in time for holiday cookie season, we’ve discovered that the vanilla flavoring in your baked goods and candy could come from the anal excretions of
beavers.
Beaver butts secrete a goo called castoreum, which the animals use to mark their territory. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lists castoreum as a “generally regarded as safe” additive, and manufacturers have been using it extensively in perfumes and foods for at least 80 years, according to a 2007 study in the
International Journal of Toxicology.
Castoreum is a chemical compound that mostly comes from a
beaver’s castor sacs, which are located between the pelvis and the base of the tail. Because of its close proximity to the anal glands, castoreum is often a combination of castor gland secretions, anal gland secretions, and urine.
Instead of smelling icky, castoreum has a musky, vanilla scent, which is why food scientists like to
incorporate it in recipes.
Because of its
FDA label, in some cases, manufacturers don’t have to list castoreum on the ingredient list and may instead refer to it as “
natural flavoring.”
