Is There Really a Flavoring Ingredient Extracted from Beaver Glands? Is This What Raspberry, Strawberry, or Vanilla Flavors Are?

The answer is yes, there is a food additive called castoreum that is derived from certain glands of the beaver and it can be used as a flavoring ingredient in foods. Although it is a flavoring ingredient, it is not a vanilla, raspberry, or strawberry flavoring, as is often reported. Instead, it is a flavor enhancer or modifier. No, raspberry flavoring does not come from beaver butt. Raspberry flavoring comes from raspberry.

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This may seem contradictory, so to understand, let’s learn more about castoreum, what it is, and how it is used.

Castoreum is also used in perfumes for a musky scent or to give leather overtones, as well as to help preserve the fragrance for longer. By the way, castor oil can perform this same function, and the similarity of the names is no accident. Castor is French for beaver, and castor oil got its name from the animal because of the oil’s usefulness in replacing castoreum.

Does it Come From the Beaver Anus?

The castoreum is a secretion from male or female beavers, which are native to Alaska, Canada, and Siberia, with the Siberian secretions being less valuable commercially. Beavers have a pair of pouch-like sacs, called castor sacs, between the kidneys and bladder, located on top of the base of the tail, just above the cloaca, or vent, which is the beaver’s only excretory opening. The secretion and the smell that comes from it is sometimes called beaver taint.

A cloaca is a common cavity and opening into which the intestinal, urinary, and reproductive paths open and empty. It is in amphibians, reptiles, birds, elasmobranch fishes (such as sharks), and monotremes, but most mammals do not have it.

In rodents like the beaver, it is an acquired trait. Therefore, the so-called beaver anal gland extract is not really from the anal gland, since technically speaking, beavers don’t have an anus. However, in fairness, anal gland is close enough. Yes, castoreum does come from the ass end of a beaver. So, this part, at least, is not a myth.

The castor sacs are scent glands, and the secretions from these glands, called castoreum, are used after the glands are harvested from the animals and dried, either in the sun or over burning wood. The pouches contain a yellowish, butter-like mass with a fetid, sharp, aromatic odor. When this secretion is dried it becomes dark red or brown and has the consistency of hard wax.

The dried secretion is ground into a powder, and tinctures, resinoids, or absolutes are derived from it. When diluted, the scent becomes more pleasant. The smell is described as slightly fruity with notes of birch tar and musk.

Why Do They Put Colors In Foods?

Many people, for obvious reasons, get upset when they find out they may have been eating the secretions from the anal glands of a beaver, and some people think that this is like eating “anal juice.” However, anal glands are glands that are associated with the anus, and they are basically modified sweat glands.

So, you are not eating the anus of a beaver (as above, they don’t technically have an anus) and you are not eating the juice from the anus of a beaver.

dried beaver castoreum — Image by H. Zell via wikimedia

Castoreum is NOT a Vanilla, Raspberry, or Strawberry Substitute

If there is one thing I cannot stand is bloggers who refuse to check their facts, or do any research. Yet, when I checked several blog posts about castoreum, most of them called castoreum a vanilla substitute. Folks, are we that gullible? Do we think it is possible to extract something from the anal glands of a beaver and have it taste like vanilla? Really? Of course not.

Castoreum is a flavor enhancer that is used along with other flavors, such as vanilla. It cannot replace them. The same sorts of things are said about raspberry and strawberry flavors, and again, the same is true.

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Castoreum has been used as a flavoring ingredient for the past 80 years. However, food labels don’t need to list the ingredient by name. It can simply be listed as natural flavoring. It is (or has been) used as a flavoring ingredient in many foods and beverages, and, as said, particularly in vanilla flavored products.

Castoreum has also been used in many raspberry-flavored products, but, as bears repeating, is not a substitute for raspberry, strawberry, or any other fruit flavor, as is sometimes claimed in articles on the internet.

Ubiquitous, castoreum is reported to have been used in baked goods, chewing gum, frozen dairy desserts, gelatins, puddings, hard and soft candy, and beverages. It is not used to impart a particular flavor, but rather as a flavor modifier. It is GRAS (generally recognized as safe) but is not Kosher and cannot be made Kosher. It may also, as stated above, be present in perfumes, and cigarettes as well.

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Jamie Oliver, along with his “pink slime” debacle, made a claim, on David Letterman, that castoreum is in “cheap strawberry syrups and vanilla ice cream.”

In either a less than intellectually honest fashion or perhaps in simple confusion, cook Oliver seems to think that if castoreum is used in vanilla-flavored products, it must be used in ALL vanilla ice cream.

Interestingly, it is only used in “cheap” strawberry syrups, making me wonder if Oliver doesn’t know that cheap ice cream and expensive ice cream also exist, and why they don’t use castoreum in expensive strawberry syrups. I also wonder exactly where I can get an expensive strawberry syrup.

Castoreum Cannot Legally Be Used in Vanilla Flavor or Extract

It is not even remotely likely that all vanilla ice cream contains castoreum for the reasons explained in the next section, below. I would not be surprised, however, to find out that Oliver read an internet article claiming that vanilla flavoring was made with castoreum and just went with it on Letterman.

Vanilla flavoring is not made with castoreum as it cannot legally be used in a vanilla flavoring, nor can anything remotely similar to it be used. The confusion probably comes from not understanding the difference between “vanilla flavor” and vanilla-flavored products.

While castoreum may be added to the mix of flavoring ingredients, including vanilla flavor, used in a vanilla-flavored product, it cannot be used as part of the vanilla flavor (such as extract), itself. If an extract product contained this ingredient, it would have to prominently declare “extract with other natural flavors” or similar languages.

You may notice that most raspberry and strawberry flavor ‘extracts’ do declare this. They are made from other flavors besides raspberry or strawberry extracts. They may or may not contain castoreum but most likely, they do not.

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Beaver Castoreum is Highly Expensive

There is one thing that you may have realized reading the above and that Oliver, most certainly, does not. Deriving beaver castoreum takes a lot of trouble! Beavers don’t exactly grow on trees, and, if you want to get at the stuff humanely (without killing the animal) it’s even tougher.

To estimate, the cost may be up to $70 a pound. That is one expensive flavor ingredient. So, not only is it unlawful to use castoreum in a vanilla extract, but it is highly unlikely that many food companies would want to use it as a flavoring ingredient at all, being that there are much cheaper alternatives.

Vanilla itself is one of the most expensive food ingredients in the world, so adding such an extravagant expense as castoreum to vanilla-flavored products is not something a food company would likely embrace.

Imitation raspberry flavor is 4-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)butan-2-one, or raspberry ketone.

Where Does Raspberry Flavoring Come From?

Raspberry flavoring may contain concentrated extracts of juice, essential oils, imitation raspberry flavor, primarily 4-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)butan-2-one, or raspberry ketone, and any number of other flavors to enhance the desired outcome. These may or may not include castoreum.

A raspberry, strawberry, or other fruit flavoring may contain all-natural ingredients or a mixture of natural and artificially derived ingredients. The primary flavor constituent will be a fruit extractive or the major flavor or aroma compound for the fruit flavor desired. Other flavorings will be used as enhancements.

What’s the Difference Between Seasonings and Flavorings?

Castoreum is a food additive derived from the glands of beavers. It is also used to give a musky scent to perfumes.
The claim that castoreum is a substitute for vanilla, raspberry, or strawberry flavor is false.
Castoreum is not used to impart a specific fruit or vanilla flavor. Instead, it is used as a flavor enhancer or modifier.
When used, castoreum is mixed with other flavors to creating a ‘flavoring” mix.
The idea that raspberry and strawberry flavors come from the anal glands of a beaver is ludicrous. These flavors come from fruit extracts, essential oils, and other natural and artificial ingredients, not beaver glands.
Castoreum is expensive and unlikely to be used in most food products, especially not in vanilla extracts or expensive strawberry syrups.