Vanilla: version 3

Saved 2026-09-15 14:05 by @benjaminsen (bot): Added other (cc-by-sa-3.0, B.navez) image. Current is v4.

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Source of v3

# Vanilla <!--ingredient-->

## Identity <!--identity-->
name: Vanilla
vegan: yes
vegetarian: yes
allergen: none
<!--/identity-->

## Relations <!--relations-->
| role     | target              | market | from | until | ended | status  | source        | note                                                                                                                                                                                |
| -------- | ------------------- | ------ | ---- | ----- | ----- | ------- | ------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| contains | ingredient/vanillin |        |      |       |       | sourced | ^wiki-vanilla | Cured vanilla fruits contain an average of 2.5 % vanillin, but the pod also carries several hundred other aroma compounds, so the pod and the compound are not the same ingredient. |
<!--/relations-->

## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name               | type   | locale | from | until |
| ------------------ | ------ | ------ | ---- | ----- |
| Vanilla beans      | name   | en     |      |       |
| Vanilla pods       | name   | en     |      |       |
| Vanilla bean       | name   | en     |      |       |
| Bourbon vanilla    | search | en     |      |       |
| Madagascar vanilla | search | en     |      |       |
| Vanilla planifolia | search | en     |      |       |
| Vanilla tahitensis | search | en     |      |       |
| Vanille            | name   | fr     |      |       |
| Vanille            | name   | de     |      |       |
| vanille            | name   | nl     |      |       |
| vainilla           | name   | es     |      |       |
| vaniglia           | name   | it     |      |       |
| baunilha           | name   | pt     |      |       |
| vanilj             | name   | sv     |      |       |
| vanilje            | name   | da     |      |       |
| vanilje            | name   | nb     |      |       |
| vanilja            | name   | fi     |      |       |
| wanilia            | name   | pl     |      |       |
| vanilka            | name   | cs     |      |       |
| vanilie            | name   | ro     |      |       |
| βανίλια            | name   | el     |      |       |
| ваниль             | name   | ru     |      |       |
| vanilya            | name   | tr     |      |       |
<!--/aliases-->

## Meta <!--meta-->
title: Vanilla
description: What vanilla is on an ingredient list: the cured pods of the Vanilla orchid, how they are grown, cured and traded, and how the pod differs from vanilla extract, vanilla flavouring and vanillin.
<!--/meta-->

## Images <!--images-->
| asset              | kind  | source            | licence      | attribution | url                                                          | accessed   | note                                                                                                | provider_entity_id | provider_image_id | source_image_url | download_url | retrieved_at | matched_barcode | match_method | match_confidence | original_width | original_height | stored_width | stored_height | upscaled |
| ------------------ | ----- | ----------------- | ------------ | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------ | ----------------- | ---------------- | ------------ | ------------ | --------------- | ------------ | ---------------- | -------------- | --------------- | ------------ | ------------- | -------- |
| other-e50cdd45.jpg | other | wikimedia-commons | cc-by-sa-3.0 | B.navez     | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AVanilla_6beans.JPG | 2026-09-15 | Six cured vanilla pods, the material this page describes; not a photograph of any packaged article. |                    |                   |                  |              |              |                 |              |                  |                |                 |              |               |          |
<!--/images-->

## References <!--references-->
| ref          | url                                                                | title                                                                                         | accessed   | publisher                           | kind        | published  | record_id | locator                                           | licence | attribution | upstream |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | ----------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | --------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ------- | ----------- | -------- |
| cfr1693      | https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/21/169.3                      | 21 CFR 169.3: Definitions of vanilla beans, unit weight and unit of vanilla constituent       | 2026-09-15 | Cornell Legal Information Institute | publication | 1977-03-15 |           | Paragraphs (a) to (c)                             |         |             |          |
| wiki-vanilla | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla                              | Wikipedia: Vanilla                                                                            | 2026-09-15 | Wikipedia                           | publication |            |           | Lede; History; Vanilla orchid; Curing; Production |         |             |          |
| eu1334a16    | https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2008/1334/article/16/2020-12-31 | Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008, Article 16: specific requirements for use of the term "natural" | 2026-09-15 | legislation.gov.uk                  | publication |            |           | Article 16(4)                                     |         |             |          |
<!--/references-->

## About <!--about-->
Vanilla is the cured seed pod of orchids of the genus *Vanilla*, the spice an ingredient list names when the pod itself, whole, ground or infused, is what went into the recipe. United States regulation puts the material precisely: vanilla beans are the properly cured and dried fruit pods of *Vanilla planifolia* Andrews and of *Vanilla tahitensis* Moore.[^cfr1693] Most of the world's crop is *V. planifolia*, sold as Bourbon or Madagascar vanilla after Île Bourbon, the former name of Réunion. The vine is not self-pollinating, and commercial growing depends on hand pollination by the method Edmond Albius, a twelve-year-old enslaved boy on Réunion, worked out in 1841. By weight vanilla is the world's second most expensive spice after saffron.[^wiki-vanilla]

World production of raw vanilla was 7,433 tonnes in 2023, led by Madagascar with 42 % of the total and Indonesia with 25 %; a third cultivated species, *V. pompona*, grows in the West Indies and in Central and South America. One flower sets one fruit, each pod ripens at its own time and is picked by hand, and the harvest is then killed, sweated, dried and conditioned in closed boxes for five to six months before the fragrance is fully developed, which is what makes the spice so labour-intensive; cured fruits contain on average 2.5 % vanillin. The Totonac of what is now Veracruz were among the first to cultivate the vine, the Aztecs took the pods after 1427, and Hernán Cortés is credited with bringing vanilla to Europe in the 1520s.[^wiki-vanilla]

The distinction this page carries is the one an ingredient list makes, and it is the reason this page and `ingredient/vanilla-flavouring` are two pages rather than one. This page is the agricultural material; vanilla extract is the solution in aqueous ethanol of the sapid and odorous principles extractable from these pods, and states `derived_from` this page; vanillin is the single compound that dominates their aroma. A vanilla flavouring, by contrast, need not come from a pod at all: only a flavouring described as *natural vanilla flavouring* must have its flavouring component obtained exclusively, or by at least 95 % by weight, from vanilla.[^eu1334a16] A pack printing "flavouring: vanilla" is therefore naming a flavouring, not this ingredient, so neither page is a narrower form of the other and neither takes the other as a parent.
<!--/about-->