Mom! My Vanilla Ice Cream Has Beaver Anal Gland Secretions in It!

The beaver is a wonderful animal. It really is. Next time you’re close to one, take a moment to notice that both the male and the female of the species have a castor sac conveniently located near the base of their tails, a.k.a. the anal region. Beavers use the yellowish secretion from these sacs, together with urine, to mark their territories.

That’s great for the beaver, but what I want to know is how did the secretion from these beaver anal glands make their way into the food supply? The ingredient can be found in puddings, drinks, and baked goods, raspberry flavored foods, and vanilla ice cream. I’d also like to know who discovered that these beaver bits were a tasty addition to food.

Hank: You try it. I dare ya.

Joe: OK, I’ll try beaver anal glands, if you go wrestle that grizzly bear.

Hank: Deal. Let’s just finish this bottle of whiskey first.

This post was shared with Butter Believer, The Healthy Home Economist, and The Prarie Homestead.

Now you may just say to yourself, thank-you-very-much, but I don’t want beaver anal gland secretions in my food. You figure you’ll look out for it on labels. Sorry, that won’t work. You won’t see beaver anal gland secretion in the ingredient list. You probably won’t see its official name – castoreum – either. This and other dubious ingredients hide under the heading of “natural flavorings”. And why not? What is more natural than a beaver living in a pastoral river, building dams and shpritzing to mark his or her territory?

I don’t have any reason to believe that there is something dangerous about castoreum, beyond the euuwwww factor. But wouldn’t it be preferable to flavor vanilla ice cream with, um, you know, vanilla? And call me crazy, but I prefer my raspberry flavored foods prepared with raspberry.

Whenever I buy ice cream, I buy it from the all-natural ice cream store conveniently located around the corner. They make their vanilla ice cream with real vanilla pods. They use real fruit. Last time I considered buying supermarket ice cream, I had a look at the list of ingredient and put it back in the supermarket freezer. After reading the long, long list of ingredients, I'd rather pass, whether it is with or without beaver anal glands.

Want to see what beaver anal glands look like? You know you do. Watch this video.

Beaver photo courtesy of Paul Stevenson.
This post was shared wtih Butter Believer, The Healthy Home Economist, Real Food Forager, Whole New Mom, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Gnowfglins, Frugally Sustainable,Nourishing Gourmet, and The Prarie Homesteader.