“How do we make healthier sausage?” is a question that has plagued meat scientists* for years. According to researchers in Catalonia, Spain the answer is baby poop. To be fair, baby poop is the answer to a lot of questions, like “What’s this brown stuff in my baby’s diaper?” and “What happened to all the baby food?”
What makes the baby poop sausage so healthy is bacteria. Microbes found in the stool of infants contain bacteria that are abundant in probiotics, specifically Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. These probiotics are not nearly as plentiful in adult feces. The bacteria was gathered from 43 babies, ages of up to six months, and was used to ferment the andoo-doouille. Normally, bacteria native to the animal flesh is used in the curing process.
In order for the probiotic bacteria to have any effect, they must be able to withstand the acid found in our digestive systems. That’s why scientists at Catalonia’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Research centered their study on bacteria found in human excrement. Anna Jofré helped make the waste-wurst, and told LiveScience:
“Probiotic fermented sausages will give an opportunity to consumers who don’t take dairy products the possibility to include probiotic foods to their diet.”
Jofré, a food microbiologist who co-authored the study, added “We ate them, and they tasted very good.”
As a lactose intolerant person who takes probiotics, I would love to be able to get my daily dose of healthy bacteria from some brownschweiger. Eating sausage everyday might begin to make up for the fact that I can’t eat ice cream without, shall we say, creating some bacterial cultures of my own. I should probably also acknowledge that these sausages don’t actually contain any poop; only the bacteria extracted from feces.
*Meat Scientists is totally going to be the name of my next band.
Via Sploid