Not so Vanilla: Could Genetically Modified Vanilla be the New
Normal?
by Leandra Filiaci
With summer ending and
the leaves changing color, the countdown to our cherished fall holidays begin.
Halloween just ended and Thanksgiving Break is right around the corner; this
mixture of holidays and cooler weather creates a more comfortable and relaxed
ambiance--an ambiance of familiar fall flavors--from pies and turkeys, to baked
goods and spice-flavored drinks. Individuals are moving from their summer diets
to a time of home cooked holiday feasts and freshly baked desserts. One
essential ingredient in many baking recipes, and an essential fall flavor,
comes from the vanilla bean. The distinct botanical flavor of vanilla is infamous
for evoking a mouthwatering response. Additionally, vanilla is an important
element of many other familiar fall tastes as well. It balances sweetness and
masks bitterness in other popular fall flavors including chocolate and caramel.
In the last five years or
so, as well as the forecasted next few years, there has been a shortage of the natural source of
this beloved flavor: the vanilla bean. You may have noticed this through the spike
in the prices of pure vanilla extract or frozen desserts like ice creams dating
back to 2010. To combat the issue of high costs, the food industry has come up
with alternative sources of vanillin--the main component in
vanilla responsible for the flavor we all know and love. In the 1800s and 1900s
vanillin started to be synthesized from other sources, including pine bark,
clove oil, rice bran, and lignin.
As you stroll down the
aisles of the grocery store, you will see that there are two types of vanilla
on the shelf, with one cheaper than the other. This price difference is simply
due to their means of production and source. The more expensive being pure
vanilla from the vanilla orchid, and the other being synthetic vanilla. In
today’s market, pure vanilla accounts for only about 1% of the vanilla
available while 85% of the vanilla flavor in the market is made from vanillin
synthesized from the petrochemical precursor guaiacol.
With synthetic vanilla on
the market, the food industry has managed to overcome the vanilla shortage. However,
recent shifts in consumer demand towards all-natural ingredients have once
again brought this shortage to light. For instance, General Mills, Hershey’s, Kellogg’s
and Nestle have reformulated their products, vowing to use only pure vanilla in
their products in order to meet consumer demands towards all-natural
ingredients. This has caused great concerns in the industry as demand for pure
vanilla is now much higher than the supply available. Companies are now not
only facing the challenge of reformulating their products, but also dealing
with the rising prices of pure vanilla and with the long talked about question
of “what is natural?”.
As a solution to this, Evolva developed a way to feed glucose to genetically
modified microbes that produce vanillin glucoside. Vanillin glucoside makes
vanillin less toxic to the microbes used, though it still needs to be removed
from the end-product to get vanillin, which many are now calling “synbio
vanillin”. Evolva licensed its technology to IFF in 2014, however it is still
yet to be seen on the market.
For companies that vow to
use natural flavors but can’t afford the high prices of pure vanilla, this new
synbio vanillin could be the solution. Due to the vague nature of the word natural in food labeling, this
synbio vanillin made from GM yeast could count as natural since yeast
fermentation is a natural process. Since the microbe that is GM is a processing
aid, a product made by this process would also not fall under U.S. GMO labeling
requirements. Additionally, because synbio vanillin is chemically identical to
synthetic vanillin already in the market, it can be identified as a GRAS (generally
recognized as safe) ingredient without going through any government evaluations
because GRAS status in flavors is evaluated by the Flavor and Extract Manufactures Association (FEMA) instead.
Many however have seen
this synbio vanillin as the villain. Groups like Friends of the Earth (FOE) have petitioned numerous
food companies, like Haagen-Dazs, to vow not to use synbio vanillin. This group
claims that synthetic vanillin is a risk to human health, the environment, and the
economy. However, they have no basis on whether this is truly the case.
Synthetic vanillin has been on the market since the late 19th
century and there has been no indication that it is a health risk, this sybio
vanillin would be essentially the same product. Additionally, FOE claims that
this synbio vanilla will outcompete pure vanilla extract and therefore put
farmers out of work by causing the vanilla farms to diminish. This however would
not be the issue because synbio vanillin would be competing with synthetic
vanillin, not pure vanilla. They would simply be a means for companies who
can’t afford pure vanilla, and who use synthetic vanillin, to adopt a more
natural alternative and able them to compete in today’s market.
As this genetic flavoring
becomes more prominent however, research still needs to be conducted on not
only to identify how consumers would react to these products, but also on the
environmental consequences of this new procedure. Since yeast requires sugar
for energy, studies must be done to see if this procedure would possibly be
more sustainable than vanillin made from petrochemicals. For instance, if used
for mass production, there could be large impacts on sugarcane plantations
which are already responsible for the loss of many biodiversity hotspots. Ultimately,
it is up to the consumer to decide--which product is consistent with the values
they hold in regards to chemicals in food; vanillin made from petrochemicals or
vanillin made by fermentation.