Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Gummy Beavers

    Recently, the Equity snack bar has begun to sell gummy bears. These fun, colorful treats have proven to be a hit. I've seen many a student wielding a cup of bears in each hand. They are one of the most popular items on the menu. When it came to my attention that some of the students were unable to eat them due to their gelatin content, my curiosity regarding the other ingredients was sparked. This is what I found.

No, there is no beaver meat in gummy bears, merely castoreum, which is worse. Castoreum is used in many different products, such as perfumes and medicine. Mainly, it is used as a replacement for vanilla. It is the excretions from dried beaver anal glands. Don't expect to find it listed in the ingredients as castoreum though, it likes to be called "natural flavoring". Natural indeed. 


Gabriella Loosle

4 comments:

  1. Well all I can say is that you never cease to surprise me with your entertaining (and occasionally disturbing) blog posts! I always hated gummy bears and now I think I know why! That is absolutely disgusting...
    Anyway, thanks for sharing Gabi! It was quite the interesting topic for sure....

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  2. wow. I dont know wether I should be in bout whats in gummy bears or that you were able to find a picture of a beavers anal glands. I'm glad your posts are cool and informative and really interesting. Though i'm never going to be able to eat gummy bears again, i'm not that shocked. Apparently perfume is made of whale sperm or something like that so finding out what horrible stuff is in gummy bears isn't that shocking

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  3. I think Chris might hate you for this but it sure is funny. I can't wait to see how people will respond to this. I wonder if the sales will go down or if people will continue to buy them. It might be like McDonalds. Everyone thinks it's disgusting but still, people continue to eat it.

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    1. They'll probably keep buying them... Kids like sugar, even when it's mixed with beaver anal fluid.

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