Dactylopius coccus by H. Zell via Wikimedia Commons

The subjects of today’s blog are two animal-based “natural” food additives that have been around for hundreds of years–but people are only just realizing where they come from. I’m talking about cochineal red coloring, derived from bugs, and castoreum flavoring, derived from beavers’ butts (no I am not kidding). Both are FDA-approved.

You may be familiar with the recent controversy swirling around Starbucks and the company’s use of cochineal-based red dye to tint such products as its strawberries and “crème” frappuccino, Raspberry Swirl Cake, pink-iced doughnuts, and red velvet whoopee pies. Consumers objected when it was revealed that cochineal is derived from the scale insect Dactylopius coccus, which exudes the red color when crushed. I have blogged before about how the Spanish conquistadors “discovered”  the Aztec’s cochineal-derived red, and how this rich red color enriched the Spanish crown for centuries.

The Starbucks issue strikes me as legitimate for someone who keeps a kosher diet, or who is a hard-core vegetarian. But for the rest of us–I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. I for one would much rather eat bug-derived red than the petroleum-based artificial red dye #40, which seems to be the most popular alternative. Better yet, we should all try to avoid these highly-processed food products in the first place.

Yeesh

John James Audubon, 1854, via Wikimedia Commons

But I do draw the line at ingesting castoreum. You may be familiar with this controversy as well.

Castoreum is a secretion of the anal glands of both the male and female North American beaver (Castor canadensis). Beavers secrete this highly-smelly scent as a kind of calling card, to stake out their territory. Indian trappers discovered that by making a concoction with this ingredient and spreading it around, they could hide their own smell and use it to trap beavers. They taught the secret to white trappers. It has been used extensively for making perfume, and in the past eighty years has been added to food as a flavor ingredient. You might find it in many raspberry-flavored foods that contain artificial flavoring, including candies, ice creams, Jell-o, yogurt, and sport drinks. Admittedly, nowadays it’s generally synthetically made, but I don’t think either alternative sounds particularly appetizing.

Blech.

Personally, I have always thought raspberry-flavored seltzers and teas and whatnot tasted vaguely disgusting, so I feel somewhat vindicated.

Um, no thanks