Page 10 - IAV Digital Magazine #451

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Is Cockroach Milk Back As A Superfood Trend?
By Caitlin O’Kane
Food trends like cronuts and char- coal come and go, but one bizarre "super- food" is back, two years after it first debuted: Cockroa ch milk.
The pesky bug is actually filled with an energy-rich milk-like sub- stance. It's not your typical non- dairy milk alterna- tive like almond milk, but cock- roach milk is gaining popularity once again, after coming to
the forefront in 2016.
In 2016, a research team based at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in India said the "milk" from the Pacific beetle cock- roach could make for the next
great superfood. These cockroach- es possess pro- tein-rich crystals that lactate to feed their young.
This particular
type of cock- roach, which is usually found on Pacific islands like Hawaii, gives birth to their babies, as opposed to laying eggs. Their "milk" is made up
of protein-infused crystals reported to have three times the energy of the equivalent mass of normal dairy milk.
"The crystals are like a complete food -- they have proteins, fats and sugars. If you look into the pro- tein sequences,
they have all the essential amino acids," Sanchari Banerjee, one of the main researchers, told the Times of India.
Perhaps now that it's 2018, people are more daring and willing to try this somewhat baffling milk alter- native. Some companies are trying to get ahead of the trend by selling the bug juice in everything from milk to ice
cream, WCBS reports. South
African compa- ny Gourmet Grubb is selling what they call "Entomilk" -- a milk that comes from sustainably farmed insects.
"Think of Entomilk as a sustainable, nature-friendly, nutritious, lactose free, delicious, guilt-free dairy alternative of the future," the com- pany says on its website. Gourmet Grubb says Entomilk has a high protein con- tent and is rich in iron, zinc, and
calcium.
Some
scientists and cockroach milk producers admit that it may be hard to get peo- ple on the band- wagon, but that's not the only road block for cock- roach milk. Besides for its unappealing name, cockroach milk is hard to come by. Roaches aren't the easiest crea- tures to
milk, NPR reports.
It's also still
unclear if cock- roach milk is safe to consume. "We have no evidence that it is actually safe for human consumption," Subramanian Ramaswamy, the lead author of the study, said 2016.
So, even though some companies are developing the milk alterna- tive now, there are many ques- tions that have to be answered before it becomes a world wide trend
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