Tell the FDA: Crushed beavers are not a "natural flavoring": An All Creatures Action Alert

"Be the change you wish to see in the world" ~Mohandas Gandhi
"Our lives began and end the day we become silent things that matter" ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Originally Posted: September 15, 2012

Tell the FDA: Crushed beaver anal sacs are not a "natural flavoring"

FROM Watchdog.net

ACTION

Tell the FDA: Please stop allowing "castoreum" to be considered just another "natural flavor" and require food manufacturers to include it on the ingredients. Customers deserve to know when they're eating bizarre animal products.

Federal Drug Administration (FDA)
10903 New Hampshire Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20993
phone (888) INFO-FDA (888) 463-6332)
online contact form - http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/default.htm

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

For years, various food companies have been using "castoreum" to flavor ice cream and other foods. The problem? Castoreum is a fancy word for a compound from the crushed anal "sacs" of beavers.

Not only is this stuff disgusting and inhumane, it's kept totally secret. Under FDA rules, companies don't need to include castoreum on the ingredients list -- they can just call it "natural flavoring".

The FDA normally just hears from big business lobbyists, but if we all speak out, we can demand they adopt honest rules about this disgusting practice. That's why we need everyone to sign our petition to them!

From Wikipedia
castoreum: is the exudate from the castor sacs of the mature North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) and the European Beaver (Castor fiber). Within the zoological realm, castoreum is the yellowish secretion of the castor sac in combination with the beaver's urine, used during scent marking of territory. Both male and female beavers possess a pair of castor sacs and a pair of anal glands located in two cavities under the skin between the pelvis and the base of the tail. The castor sacs are not true glands (endocrine or exocrine) on a cellular level, hence references to these structures as preputial glands or castor glands are misnomers. Today, it is used as a tincture in some perfumes and as a food additive.

Thank you for everything you do for animals!