Scientists claim ‘cockroach milk’ could be the next big superfood

LONDON: Most people would prefer never to come across a cockroach, especially in a restaurant, but according to scientists the insect’s secretions could soon be making an appearance on menus everywhere. This is because cockroach milk, or post-natal fluid, is being hailed as the latest foody fad for non-dairy drinkers. According to researchers from the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in India, the milk, which is secreted from the critters in the form of crystals to nourish its hatchlings, could be enjoyed by humans too. Published in the Journal of the International Union of Crystallography, scientists revealed that the milk of the Pacific beetle cockroach – otherwise known as Diploptera punctata - boasts many nutritional benefits.

“The crystals are like a complete food – they have proteins, fats and sugars,” Sanchari Banerjee, one of the main researchers, told the Times of India.

“If you look into the protein sequences, they have all the essential amino acids.”

In fact, the study authors stated that a single crystal of the milk “is estimated to contain more than three times the energy of an equivalent mass of dairy milk.”

However, cockroach milk isn’t the easiest to come by. As well as the fact that the cockroaches die in the process of extracting the fluid, it would take a whole army of the insects to make up even one glass of milk. But, that hasn’t stopped some companies from jumping on the trend. South African company Gourmet Grubb has even gone as far as to sell imitation ice cream from “entomilk” - a non-dairy milk made from sustainably farmed insects.