1. The vanilla bean demand dilemma
The key chemical compound in vanilla that gives it that lovely vanilla flavor is vanillin. Unfortunately, it’s tough for vanilla bean supply to meet demands (NYT 2002, Huffington Post 2012), which is partly responsible for the high costs of natural vanilla. The production process of vanilla beans takes about 5-6 years, plus they have to be pollinated by hand, and these cute little fruits (yes, they’re actually a fruit!) have to be hand-picked! Whew! After all of that, of course these beans are expensive, and the high costs and high demand provide a strong argument for alternative sources of one of our favorite scents and flavors.
So where do these vanilla alternatives come from? Here are the most interesting sources:
2. Vanilla scent and flavoring from cow poo
Vanillin use for fragrance or flavoring can be produced from the lignin in cow dung! Yes, you read that correctly. COW POO! In fact the Japanese researcher, Mayu Yamamoto, won an Ig Nobel prize in chemistry for this research in 2007. This process may sound like an unappealing source, but it’s important to consider that if this source of vanillin becomes widespread, it will decrease greenhouse gas emissions released by cow poo.
3. Vanilla flavor from beaver bums
Vanilla flavors can come from castoreum. Most popular articles define castoreum as the goo released from the castor sacs (similar to anal glands) of a beaver. Of course it’s a bit more than that. Castoreum is extracted not only from the secreted goo, but from the dried castor sacs themselves! Here’s a research article on castoreum if you’re interested. This not so appetizing sounding stuff is not only used for vanilla flavoring but is used to enhance raspberry and strawberry flavors as well. Vegans may be interested to know that this extract is labelled as “natural flavoring” in most ingredients lists.
Other artificial vanilla extracts:
Lignin is an important cellular component in plants, and it is typically chemically derived from wood and paper pulp industries. It’s also in cow poo, which makes sense given their plant-based diet. Guaiacol is a byproduct when the lignin in wood is burned. There seems to be a lot of misleading information about guaicol in a lot of food articles. Yes, it is a petroleum precursor, but it is still a natural product and is not a petroleum byproduct.
Vanillin can also be derived from:
- glycosides in pine sap, which was the first method of vanillin extraction discovered back in 1874
- eugenol, which is an essential oil extract of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, basil and bay leaves
Food for thought
Now don’t you wish that ingredients were listed like this? I do want to point out that the labeling of vanilla as “artificial” or “natural” is very confusing depending on the laws of your country and the wordplay of the product marketing. If you’re primarily concerned about it being “artificial” or “natural” then I highly recommend you read this article by yours truly. If you are vegan and are concerned about where it comes from then you should contact the manufacturer.
Does real vanilla extract taste better?
. It’s quite possible that the reason real vanilla extract tastes better is because it contains MANY other chemical compounds (e.g. vanillic acid and hydroxybenzoic acid) that produce flavor in addition to vanillin. It’s just that vanillin is the main compound found in vanilla bean extracts. Here’s a research article comparing these flavor compounds in different beans if you’re interested.