Synthetic Vanilla: Are you going to eat that?

By: Natya Hans

image source: http://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/case4.png

Synthetic Vanilla or Vanillin has been produced by  Switzerland based company called Evola and it is being claimed as a substitute for natural vanilla. The cause of concern among the public in general has been the lack of labeling the synthetic Vanilla. 

Vanillin is  made by  adding genes to yeast to produce new enzymes, which, along with  the yeast’s own enzymes,  enables it  to convert a compound like glucose into the desired product. They say they have developed an economically feasible and environmentally friendly method of product vanillin via fermentation. Researchers have studied three potential approaches: a genomic approach, a biochemical approach and a proteomic approach. 

How have they done it? Read the complete article here: http://aem.asm.org/content/75/9/2765.short

Evola has acquired facilities in United States, Denmark and India and has become a public company since 2009 .The Evola claims it to be" natural vanilla product with a superior taste, great naturalness".

Synthetic biology vanillin has caused several human health, environmental and economic concerns for consumers. food companies and other stake holders. With its potential role in destruction of the rainforest, farmers and the otherpoor communities across the globe are likely to be affected.  The farmers are concened that the synbio vanilla disguised as "natural" could easily displace the demand of natural vanilla and they won;t have a way to protect the rainforest from being utilized for other commercial crops. 

image source:http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/1a/4/3131/vanilla-fb-graphic-06_copy.jpg

A campaign by an organization called "Friends of the Earth" has been going on against the use of synthetic vanilla in ice creams which can be accessed here:   http://action.foe.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14160.  The campaign is to protest that the ice cream giants should not use synthetic vanilla as it is not labelled and cannot be distinguished from the natural vanilla. 

The livelihood of Madagascar farmer's largely depends upon the cultivation of the vanilla pods.

source: 1. http://www.cbd.int/doc/emerging-issues/emergingissues-2013-07-WilsonCenter-SynbioApplicationsInventory-en.pdf
2. http://organicmattersblog.com/2013/09/24/synthetic-biology-the-next-generation-of-genetic-engineering/
3. http://vanilla.com/?s=synthetic%20biology
4. http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/67/3/3132/1/synbio_vanillin_fact_sheet.pdf
5. http://www.evolva.com/products/vanilla