339
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
339 points (94.0% liked)
Technology
74003 readers
4663 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
A reminder that "natural flavor" doesn't mean healthier or even something you might want over the artificially created flavors. It just means it comes from a natural source and is not lab created.
Castoreum, sometimes used for vanilla and raspberry flavoring, comes from beaver anal secretions. That would be labelled under a "natural flavor" and you'd never be told more than that.
I'll take the artificial stuff any day just on principle there.
I think it's worth pointing out that vanilla extract is from vanilla beans and artificial vanilla is whatever the fuck they feel like that tastes like vanilla. Also, modern artificial vanilla extremely rarely, if ever, is derived from Castoreum because it's hard as hell to farm beavers and expensive as all fuck. The "artificial vanilla comes from beaver anal glands" is basically a prevalent internet myth that gets passed around like the, "You eat 7 spiders a year in your sleep." myth.
Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/does-vanilla-flavoring-actually-come-from-beaver-butts-180983288/
Incorrect, vanillin is the primary component of real vanilla beans and responsible for like 90% of the flavor.
I don't understand what this would be correcting in what I said above. Can you show me what part this is correcting? Cause I'm legitimately confused.
You said artificial vanilla is whatever the fuck. It's not, artificial vanilla is the main ingredient of natural vanilla, but without the other flavors
Ah gotcha! I for sure was not following what you were saying. I don't know if that's he real thrust of the point in my above comment, but I was more referring to the fact that artificial vanilla doesn't necessarily come from vanilla beans. I should've been more precise with my language, but it's worth noting that artificial vanilla is largely synthesized and comes from a variety of sources, not just vanilla beans (see below for the source/pertinent excerpt).
It also gets weird as to how the FDA regulates the term. I believe the key term is actually "Pure" in the "Pure Vanilla Extract" but don't quote me on that. Not sure how it's done by other regulatory agencies but it's probably equally convoluted in a lot of places.
Source: https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/US/en/technical-documents/technical-article/food-and-beverage-testing-and-manufacturing/flavor-and-fragrance-formulation/vanilla-regulations
Pertinent excerpt:
Yes, that's true, but the vanillin in the artificial stuff is chemically identical to the real thing
It would have cost you nothing to not write this.
Maybe he wouldn't have lost anything, but I wouldn't have been able to enjoy his comment.
Also, poop has natural flavour. Natural flavour also doesn't mean it tastes good.
Spoken like someone who’s never ate shit.
You're not going to catch me out with this one again!
Billions of flies can't be wrong!!
Get your Synthetic poop flavour here!
Myth. Vanilla extracts either come from low grade vanilla pods or cloves. It may have been but not today.
Mmmm, I like licking beaver butt. 😉
My ex wife's uncle was the director of the south American division of the arm that made coloring and flavorings of one of the big Food/Chem groups, Procter & Gamble, or unilever, or one of those. Can't remember.
No one in his household ate any processed/ultra processed foods.
Do the math.
Fuck man I had no idea, I've missed out on my prime years of eating beaver anal secretions 😭
They can still be your prime years in terms of quantity of beaver ass eaten, if not in quality. But I think you sell yourself short. They're gonna love you!