I bet ze bugs don't sound so bad now, puny peasants!

Think about sawdust.

Eating it is probably the last thing that comes into your mind, but that may be about to change thanks to one Estonian start-up.

ÄIO, set up in 2022, has created a way of producing fats and oils from industrial waste.

Lemme just stop you right there:

The folks making this stuff claim they are using a "type of yeast that coverts sugars from industrial sidestreams ... into fats and oils." Yeast is natural; so is sugar, so are fats and oils.

On the other hand, well, it all sounds very ghoulish.

It's a creepy and gross way to manufacture food. Here's a "fat" produced by this process:

No thanks! I'll pass. I will stick with my normally grown fats thank you so very much.

Make no mistake though, these folks are going to try hard to sell this:

When asked if ÄIO faces prejudice from consumers, who may be reluctant to eat industrial byproducts, Lahtvee insists the process is the same as making other fermented foods like kimchi or yoghurt that people eat without thinking twice.

Ah, yes, kimchi and yogurt — the thousands-of-years-old traditional foods that people have been eating for countless generations without ill effect.

Forgive me if I'm a bit more skeptical about eating reconstituted "industrial waste!"

If any one of you tries this stuff, please, let us know how it is, 'cause we're not eating it. Then again, maybe that's the point.

Like I said at the beginning, bugs don't sound bad when it's either that or sawdust!

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