Castoreum, which is not the same as a castor bean, is a
flavor enhancer used in a lot of processed foods. It is also used for anxiety,
restless sleep, and some women take it to start their menstrual cycles or to
lessen the pain during the cycle. Castoreum has been deemed safe to ingest by
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers
Association (FEMA), and is generally recognized as safe. It is an extract that is dipped in alcohol
(not the kind people use to get intoxicated) and is used as a vanilla
flavoring. The crazy thing about this is the extract comes from beavers. The
secretion is extracted from the beaver’s castor sacs which are located I between
the tail and pelvis of the beaver. Since the castor sac is close to the anal
glands, Castoreum often has anal gland and urine residue mixed in it. It is a
brown slime with a similar texture to molasses. It is not easy to manufacture
enough Castoreum for the massive food production. Some extractors have stated
that a popular method is to milk the anal glands and the Castoreum gushes right
out. As disgusting as it sounds, they say this is the most effective method. Since
Castoreum comes from animals and according to its FDA classification, food
companies are allowed to out “natural flavoring” instead of putting Castoreum which
is pretty misleading to say the least. Its loopholes like this that do not help
those people who are conscience of what they eat and use the food labels as
guides. Although it has been deemed as safe from the FDA, using Castoreum in
foods just doesn’t seem natural. As much new scientific discoveries as we have,
there should be a way to extract these flavors and scents from the actual
produce/foods that they come from.
