Beaver Anus

I was scanning Yahoo.com this morning and came across an article describing some of the "scariest" ingredients in our food. One of the items listed was castoreum, which is the secretion from a beaver's anal gland. Apparently castoreum is approved by the FDA as "generally safe" and food manufacturer's who use it are only required to list it as a "natural flavor" rather than by it's actual name. According to multiple websites (including snopes, because I totally had to Google the crap out of this) castoreum is used in America in various food items including candies, desserts, and drinks, especially ones with raspberry, strawberry, or vanilla flavoring. There is no available list of companies that use castoreum in their food because, as previously mentioned, the FDA only requires it to be listed as "natural flavor". Let's be honest, no intelligent person would buy a food with beaver anal juice castoreum as an ingredient if they knew what it was.

Originally I had an entire list of things I wanted to say about the fact that I've probably eaten beaver anus juice at some point in my life, but after throwing up a little in my mouth I decided I'd just pass on this awesome little tidbit of info and let everyone decide for themselves. If anyone is interested in reading about other nasty things we consume in our food, click here. Personally, I will be sticking to the outer edges of the grocery store when shopping for food.

Happy Monday!