Yep, you read the headline right. The next big innovation in sausage manufacturing could well be the inclusion of baby excrement according to human by-product researchers who believe that infant poop could provide a host of health benefits.
Dubbed as 'pooperoni' by some, Spanish researchers have taken bacteria cultured from faeces present in the nappies of infants, and used them as an ingredient in ‘fuets’, the researchers' take on the spicy Spanish sausage chorizo. 10ml/kg of the bacteria was added to lean pork and then stuffed into pork casings to ripen – creating a product somewhat similar to pepperoni, WAtoday reports.
Meat Science, the official journal of the American Meat Science Association published a paper on the study, which included comments from six “trained assessors” whom had taste tested the fuets, and judged them on smell, taste, hardness, ease of peeling and crumbliness.
According to Dr Hani Al-Salami, a pharmaceutical science lecturer at Perth’s Curtin University, it is important to use bacteria from baby faeces rather than adult faeces due to the ‘milder gut content’ that infants possess.
"Babies at that young age, the gut content is quite mild and nice compared with an older person," Al-Salami told WAtoday.
"The reason is, as we grow, we do eat a lot of things and not everything we eat is the best in terms of quality."
Al-Salami says that the addition of bacteria aids in the digestion of the food, and that recent studies have proven its benefits which include the balancing of ph values in the gut, and the production of vitamins.
"The main aim is to gain a full understanding of what healthy diet means and find out how much it takes of the baby sausage, to get the benefits."
Al-Salami also said that the cultured sausages could – at some point in the future – make its way to the retail sector.
"Down the track we hope [they'll be available for purchase]," he said.
"That's why all the work is being done."