It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but scientists say
cockroach milk could become a new superfood. Insect dairy could be the next big
thing on supermarket shelves and in our diets. Scientists say insect milk could
be a perfect non-dairy alternative to cow's milk, no matter how hard it might
be for people to accept milk from bugs. Scientists studied the nutritional
value of the milk from the Pacific Beetle cockroach. They discovered that the
milk was much richer in nutrients than dairy milk. Scientists said: "A
single crystal [of cockroach milk] is estimated to contain more than three
times the energy of an equivalent mass of dairy milk." The crystals were
also full of amino acids and proteins.
Most cockroaches do not actually produce milk. The Pacific
Beetle cockroach is the only one known to feed milk to its young. However,
milking enough cockroaches to satisfy a growing human population clearly isn't
as easy as milking cows. An alternative is to try and replicate the milk in a
lab using stem cell technology, and then turn this technique into a large-scale
industrial process. A South African company called Gourmet Grubb has already
started selling insect-milk ice cream. It says the milk is, "a
sustainable, nature-friendly, nutritious, lactose-free, delicious, guilt-free
dairy alternative of the future". It won't be too long before other
companies jump on the bug-milk bandwagon.
Questions
1. Are there any food you hate or you cannot eat? If yes, tell us.
2. What i the best way to use milk in food? What is your favorite dairy product?
3. What did you think when you read the headline? Have you ever eaten insects before?
4. What do you know about cockroaches? What images are in your mind when you hear the word 'cockroach'?
5. What do you think of drinking cockroach milk? Would you buy cockroach milk if it was better than cow's milk? How about the cockroach-milk ice cream?
6. What do you think of accepting insects as a meal? What other superfoods do you know about?