Castoreum

            Castoreum is substance that is commonly extracted from the castor sacs of the North American and European Beaver. The castor sacs are located under the skin of the behind of the beaver between the pelvis and the base of the tail. Castoreum is naturally used along with the beavers urine as a scent for marking the beavers territory. Castoreum’s modern uses include being a scent additive in some perfumes. It naturally carries a scent, which is similar to that of vanilla, and when it is diluted in alcohol the scent becomes even more recognizable. This makes it ideal for use in perfumes and in other scent applications. Another popular use for castoreum has been in traditional medicine. Due to this, the beaver population in Sweden was essentially wiped out in the 19^th century.

            Perhaps the strangest use for castoreum is its use as a common food additive. According to the FDA, castoreum is considered to be “generally recognized as safe.” Due to the difficulty and expense of collecting castoreum from beavers, it is hard to find in common mass marketed foods. What is even more interesting is that you wont find it listed as an ingredient in foods, instead it is listed as “natural flavoring.” For whatever reason the FDA allows food producers to get away with listing the ingredient this way. How many people do you think would buy a tub of vanilla ice cream if the list of ingredients read castoreum or beaver butt?

            I know there are many different things in the foods that I consume every day that are probably unnatural or not things that I would want in my diet. However, I never really put much thought into it when reading the ingredient list on a food label. Maybe now after this I will start to think about it a little more and do my research.