It might not sound nice, but scientists say cockroach milk could be a superfood. Insect dairy could be the next big thing on supermarket shelves. Scientists say insect milk is a great alternative to cow's milk. However, it might be hard for people to put milk from bugs in their diet. Scientists studied the nutritional value of milk from the Pacific Beetle cockroach. They found that the milk was more nutritious than cow's milk. They said cockroach milk had, "more than three times the energy of an equivalent mass of dairy milk". It was also full of amino acids and proteins.
The Pacific Beetle cockroach is the only cockroach known to produce milk. However, milking cockroaches to satisfy the human population clearly isn't as easy as milking cows. An alternative is to reproduce the milk in a lab, and then turn this into large-scale production. A South African company 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 start making food and drink using insect milk.