Health & Medicine
Can Human Bacteria be Used to Make Cheese?
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Nov 28, 2013 09:57 PM EST
A recent study looks at how some scientists have used human bacteria to make cheese.
"Cheese is actually a really great model organism for us to think about good and bad bacteria but also good and bad smells," biologist Christina Agapakis from the University of California, Los Angeles said according to the Los Angeles Times. "Can knowledge and tolerance of bacterial cultures in our food improve tolerance of the bacteria on our bodies?"
For the project, researchers worked with odor artist Sissel Tolaas to extract human bacteria from the armpits, belly button, mouths and fungus between toes. The bacteria came from Agapakis and Micahel Pollan, a food writer and author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma."
Researchers then mixed the bacteria with milk in order to create cheese, and to their surprise, they found that some of the bacteria used between toes is actually similar to what's present in cheese.
Agapakis notes that she hopes her findings may change how people view bacteria.
"People were really nervous and uncomfortable and kind of making these grossed out faces," Agapakis said, via FOX News. "Then they smell the cheese, and they'll realize that it just smells like a normal cheese."
Cheese is made by Lactobacillus bacteria and sourced from plants or animals in order to curdle milk.
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First Posted: Nov 28, 2013 09:57 PM EST
A recent study looks at how some scientists have used human bacteria to make cheese.
"Cheese is actually a really great model organism for us to think about good and bad bacteria but also good and bad smells," biologist Christina Agapakis from the University of California, Los Angeles said according to the Los Angeles Times. "Can knowledge and tolerance of bacterial cultures in our food improve tolerance of the bacteria on our bodies?"
For the project, researchers worked with odor artist Sissel Tolaas to extract human bacteria from the armpits, belly button, mouths and fungus between toes. The bacteria came from Agapakis and Micahel Pollan, a food writer and author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma."
Researchers then mixed the bacteria with milk in order to create cheese, and to their surprise, they found that some of the bacteria used between toes is actually similar to what's present in cheese.
Agapakis notes that she hopes her findings may change how people view bacteria.
"People were really nervous and uncomfortable and kind of making these grossed out faces," Agapakis said, via FOX News. "Then they smell the cheese, and they'll realize that it just smells like a normal cheese."
Cheese is made by Lactobacillus bacteria and sourced from plants or animals in order to curdle milk.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone