It seems like the Turkish idiom for squeezing blood from an orange – "sinekten yağ çıkarmak" (literally: "extracting fat from flies") – might soon become a reality.
If you have allergies or are intolerant to dairy, perhaps this more environmentally friendly alternative could be exactly what you are looking for.
Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium are experimenting with larva fat to replace butter in waffles, cakes and cookies, saying using grease from insects is more sustainable than dairy products.
Clad in white aprons, the researchers soak Black soldier fly larvae in a bowl of water, put it in a blender to create a smooth grayish dollop and then use a kitchen centrifuge to separate out insect butter.
“There are several positive things about using insect ingredients,” said Daylan Tzompa Sosa, who oversees the research. “They are more sustainable because (insects) use less land (than cattle), they are more efficient at converting feed ... and they also use less water to produce butter,” Tzompa Sosa said as she held out a freshly baked insect butter cake.
According to researchers, consumers noticed no difference when a quarter of the milk butter in a cake was replaced with larva fat. However, they report an unusual taste when the consistency gets to fifty-fifty and said they would rather not want to buy the cake.
Insect food has high levels of protein, vitamins, fiber and minerals and scientists elsewhere in Europe are looking at it as a more environmentally friendly and cheap alternative to other types of animal products.
So what do you think? Could this apparently eco-friendly food become mainstream? Only time will tell...
