Why is castoreum used in food

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Here, we break down what a beaver's behind may have to do with your next dessert's flavoring — and if it's actually in what you're buying at the store.

Castoreum is a heavily-scented brown or tan goo that is secreted from a beaver's castor gland, which is located nail-bitingly close to its anal gland. Beavers use castoreum to communicate with each other about marking territory, establishing colonies, and deterring predators.

Despite its less-than-ideal origins, castoreum smells pleasant. Our basic foodstuffs are not grown in sterile conditions and so our diet is peppered with a variety of unintended side dishes, including soil, rodent hairs, faeces, mould, parasites and, of course, insects. The earthy nature of food production is acknowledged in the US through the publication of the Defect Levels Handbook that defines acceptable non-hazardous levels of these undisclosed morsels. For example, two cupfuls of cornmeal may legitimately contain up to five whole insects, ten insect fragments, ten rodent hairs and five rodent poop fragments.

It certainly puts that half-eaten apple into perspective. This was commonly used on the pelts of small animals, such as beavers, to make the fur softer. While phased out from most industrial processes, mercury remains a significant air and water pollutant.

Indeed, the release of industrial waste into the sea off the south coast of Japan resulted in the local population eating seafood containing methylmercury, the most toxic form of mercury. Because of this, several thousand people became victims of Minamata disease. How did the seafood become so poisonous? The answer lies in an effect called bioaccumulation , the process whereby the concentration of a substance can substantially increase with each step up the food chain see illustration.

So next time you tuck into a tuna steak, try not to get too irritable or excitable about the hidden mercury. Castoreum has also been used to treat headaches, which makes sense given that it contains salicylic acid, the main ingredient in aspirin. The colonization of America led into an increase in the availability of beaver pelts, which were used to make fine hats all over Europe, and to a resurgence of interest in castoreum as medicine.

Sold in drugstores and pharmacies, it was recommended for earaches, toothaches, colic, gout, inducing sleep, preventing sleep, and general strengthening of the brain. It was also in the 19th century that the substance began to be used in the perfume industry as a fixative—an ingredient that makes other scents smell better and last longer.

By the end of the 19th century, the demand for pelts and castoreum was so great that North American beavers were on the edges of extinction. He cannot coexist with civilization.