Have you ever wondered what “natural flavor” means on the labels of some foods?
For decades, a substance called castoreum, obtained from glands located next to beavers’ anus, was used in small amounts to enhance sweet flavors such as vanilla and raspberry.
Most striking is that this ingredient could appear under the generic label “natural flavor”, a category that groups together thousands of ingredients of animal and plant origin. Today its use in foods is extremely rare, but the fact continues to generate astonishment every time it resurfaces.
