'Actually rather nice' Could ant yoghurt be the next big thing for fermentation fans?

Whether it's kombucha, kefir, kraut, kimchi, or sourdough, today's foodies aren't short of fermented treats to tantalise their tastebuds.

- Linda Geddes

‘As a keen fermentista, I found the urge to try making my own ant yoghurt hard to resist’: Linda Geddes trying her hand at the process, using a methodology based on Sinotte’s paper

(ADRIAN SHERRATT/THE GUARDIAN)

But for the adventurous, the menu may be about to get wilder. How about a spoonful of ant yoghurt?

Making it doesn't involve milking any ants. Rather, the unfortunate insects are dropped into a jar of warm milk, which is tucked into an ant mound and left to ferment overnight - a Bulgarian tradition that is now being resurrected in the name of science.

Dr Veronica Sinotte at the University of Copenhagen and her colleagues became interested in the practice after research and development (R&D) chefs at Copenhagen's double-Michelin starred Alchemist restaurant approached them, in the hope of learning more about how this fermentation process might work.

“Ants are a somewhat commonly used ingredient in high-end gastronomy in Copenhagen. They're an ingredient chefs like to play with,” said Dr Leonie Jahn at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Biosustainability in Lyngby, Denmark, who supervised the project. “The [former] head of Alchemist's R&D was very keen on science-driven food innovation and quite excited about the acidity of the ants. He wanted to explore that.”