Is this the new milk craze?
If there’s one thing I don’t like associating with food and drinks, it’s cockroaches. Yet, according to a 2016 study, we can’t escape them. 2020 was predicted to be the year of cockroach milk.
Superfood alert
We’re now well past the halfway point of 2020, and I’m still waiting for the first superfood to emerge. A new product that we can all consume for a year, only to discover afterwards that it isn’t actually good for you, bad for the environment, or simply inedible. I hadn’t seen anything yet, until an article from a few years ago suddenly appeared in my feed. Let’s take it back to 2016.
In 2016, the word cockroach milk appeared for the first time. According to researchers from India, this is the only drink you’ll ever need. Researchers even say it could be the solution for an ever-growing population. The milk is packed with nutrients we need: proteins, fats and sugars. It also contains essential amino acids: building blocks that the body cannot produce itself.
A cockroach cappuccino, please
When you’ll be able to order a cockroach cappuccino is still a long way off. As you can imagine, milking the tiny insects is no easy task. Several factors make it difficult. The milk comes from just one species of cockroach, Diploptera Punctata, found in Hawaii. It gives birth to live young and feeds them with a milk-like substance consisting mainly of protein crystals. In this case, the milk is a kind of crystal-like substance extracted from the cockroach with a needle. Well, not quite as simple as pulling on a cow’s udders. It takes no less than 24 to 48 hours to extract half a drop of milk from a cockroach. And to produce 100 grams of cockroach milk, you also have to kill more than 1,000 cockroaches.
Large-scale production is therefore still a long way off. But I’m hopeful that 2020 will be the year we see cockroach milk appear for the first time. Well… cockroach milk in your glass is better than a cockroach in your kitchen.
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