Raspberry Beaver Butt

What’s in your food? What's in your food?

Castoreum!

What's castoreum?

Castoreum is secreted from castor glands which are located in the beaver's anus. Castoreum also contains anal gland discharge and even urine. It looks like thin molasses - dark, thick, and slimy and it smells like vanilla. It is used by beavers to help them poop, as a coating for their fur, and to mark territory. People have used castoreum for thousands of years as strawberry and vanilla flavoring in many foods! Originally people would hunt beavers for their pelts and discovered the castoreum had a fruity odor because of their diet. Today, Beavers are anesthetized and anal glands are milked to harvest the castoreum. 5 million pounds of castoreum are harvested a year for our foods such as ice cream, cakes, sodas, and candies. The FDA classifies castoreum as a natural ingredient and considers it safe to use. Castoreum is also currently used in cigarettes to add flavor to them. It can be purchased in some pharmacies as a sleep aid. It is often found in vanilla extract which is used in almost all baked products so chances are you've probably eaten beaver butt juice. If you are a Starbucks fan you might want to skip the vanilla syrup in your next drink!

Some Information not Factual

 Barwick, Emily Moran. “Is Smoking Vegan?” Bite Size Vegan, https://bitesizevegan.org/is-smoking-vegan/. Accessed 20 October 2024.

Berenstein, Nadia, et al. “A History of Flavoring Food With Beaver Butt Juice.” VICE, 20 December 2018, https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-history-of-flavoring-food-with-beaver-butt-juice/. Accessed 20 October 2024.

“Castoreum.” Center for Science in the Public Interest, 29 January 2022, https://www.cspinet.org/article/castoreum. Accessed 20 October 2024.

“Castoreum.” Center for Science in the Public Interest, 29 January 2022, https://www.cspinet.org/article/castoreum. Accessed 20 October 2024.