Today we are living in a highly commercialized world. So the food industry has become a multi-billion dollar business where they use quicker methods to introduce new tastes and colors. Little do you know that there can be weird ingredients you are eating.

Fish Bladders

Wine is not always made from grapes, though. Grapes are used, and occasionally fish bladders as well. Isinglass, a form of gelatin used to manufacture “excellent” wines and even certain beers,  from fish bladder membranes. Although our approaches to this were varied, it is impossible to tell if isinglass was utilized just by observing the packaging.

In the United States, one bladder from a Totoaba Macdonald fish is worth $5,000. Whereas in Asia, it is worth over $10,000. Moreover, Chinese cuisine primarily uses the bladders in dishes like soups. As the dealers don’t care about the flesh and getting caught with it would be risky, the fish are frequently just stripped of their bladders and abandoned on the shore, meat and all.

Weird Ingredients Used As Food Flavorings; Fish Bladders

We’re not referring to the same bladder that a human possesses, though. On the totoaba, the valued organ is not urinated in. It is fish’s swim bladder, an organ that expands with gas to alter the fish’s buoyancy. Also, it enable the fish to move up and down in the water.

Beaver Anal Glands

Your baked products and candies may include vanilla flavoring made from beaver anal excrements. Yes! you read that right! Vanilla flavorings doesn’t always come from fresh vanilla beans.

Castoreum, a secreted substance from beaver butts, is used by the animals to mark their territory. According to a 2007 research published in the International Journal of Toxicity, producers have been using castoreum widely in foods and fragrances for at least 80 years. Moreover, according to the recourses,  the U.S. Food and Drug Administration describes it as an additive that is “generally considered as safe.”

Weird Ingredients Used As Food Flavorings; Beaver Anal Glands

This may sound cringy, but some biologists say that beavers’ butt smells really wonderful. The castor sacs of a beaver, which are situated between the pelvis and the base of the tail, are the primary source of the chemical compound known as castoreum. Castoreum often contains a mixture of castor gland fluids, anal gland secretions, and urine. Because of its closeness to the anal glands. According to Crawford, the scented, brown slime has a texture similar to honey but is not nearly as thick. Crawford continued, “Although most anal secretions smell due to  bacteria that produces odor in the gut, this chemical is a result of the beaver’s distinctive diet of leaves and bark.

Food experts like to use castoreum in recipes since it has a musky, vanilla flavor rather than an unpleasant odor.

Sheep Secretions

Are you aware that each time you put your preferred chewing gum in your mouth, you may be consuming a sheep’s wool secretion? Yep, you’re right. Lanolin, a waxy fluid from the sebaceous glands of sheep skin, has been discovered in chewing gum. Its purpose is to render sheepskin waterproof.

Weird Ingredients Used As Food Flavorings; Sheep Secretions

Because of this, lanolin is frequently used as a component in skin care products. That is kind of is acceptable right?  Is it safe to eat, though? Lanolin is a component of chewing gum base. So, this rubbery material that gives chewing gum its “chewable” quality. Because this foundation is standardized, producers are not required to list all of its contents. Consequently, the chewing gum that seems harmless is actually as harmless as you imagined!

Crushed Bugs

The bad news is that you have undoubtedly eaten insects many, many times even though the idea horrifies you. This is due to the fact that carmine, one of the most popular red food colorings, is created by crushing up bugs. The cochineal insects, are used to produce carmine. They are indigenous to South America. Also, they are found living on cactus there. Millions of the small insects, which are now mostly grown in Peru, are gathered each year to make the coloring. Carmine is a common ingredient in the world’s food supply. It is being used to color anything from ice cream and yogurt to fruit pies, sodas, cupcakes, and doughnuts. Moreover, it is widely utilized in the cosmetics sector and is a component of many lipsticks.

Because it is a durable, safe, and long-lasting compound whose color is barely changed by heat or light, carmine is still commonly employed.

Weird Ingredients Used As Food Flavorings; Crushed Bugs

Advocates also pointed out that it is a natural substance that was originally discovered and utilized over five centuries ago by the Maya and later the Aztecs. In comparison to artificial alternatives such food colorings manufactured from coal or petroleum byproducts, they assert that it is far healthier.
The 5mm  long bugs are brushed off the prickly pear cacti’s leaf pads. Instead of the flying males, it is the wingless females who are collected.

Carminic acid, which makes up roughly a one fourth of the bugs’ weight and prevents other insects from preying on them, gives them their red color.

Duck Feathers and Human Hair

L-cysteine is a food additive frequently obtained from duck feathers or human hair. It is occasionally listed on food labels as E920. It is used as a conditioning element and strengthener for dough. Because it enables the dough to be stretched out to create, for instance, a pizza crust. Commercial breads’ shelf lives can likewise be increased with the use of L-cysteine. L-cysteine is a completely safe amino acid that may be consumed by anyone. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.

The majority of L-cysteine comes from China, where human hair and feathers are gathered from barbershop floors and farms.  L-cysteine is extracted chemically from the processed feathers and hair in China facilities.

Weird Ingredients Used As Food Flavorings; Duck Feathers and Human Hair

L-cysteine must usually always be labeled, according to the FDA. Normally, it follows the word “dough conditioner” in brackets. The only exceptions are when it is a component of an ingredient that is used to manufacture another component that is utilized in a finished product. For instance, L-cysteine does not need to be labeled when it is a component of a “reaction taste”.

Vegetarians and vegans, as well as those who adhere to the Kosher and Halal diets, are among the consumer groups who choose not to eat food containing L-cysteine. The good thing is that L-cysteine can be produced synthetically. But at a higher cost than with feathers and hair. Just 10% of L-cysteine-containing goods, according to the Vegetarian Resource Group, are made with synthetic L-cysteine.

Newborn Calf Stomach Lining

Rennet, a component found in many cheeses and cheese-related items, is created using an enzyme found in the stomach linings of calves. The stomach of butchered new-born calves is the traditional source of rennet, according to The Vegan Society. Rennet from either fungal/bacterial sources or genetically engineered microorganisms is used to make vegetarian cheeses.

Weird Ingredients Used As Food Flavorings; Newborn Calf Stomach Lining