Fly larvae ice cream‚ anyone?

Eating ice cream isn’t usually regarded as an act of bravery‚ so why were some delegates at a food conference in Cape Town on Thursday taking selfies of themselves bearing horror movie expressions while holding spoonfuls of the stuff?

Because the peanut butter‚ chai tea and chocolate flavoured ice cream wasn’t a dairy product - far from it.

The main ingredient in Cape Town-based Gourmet Grubb’s ice cream is insect larvae - black soldier fly larvae‚ to be exact.

It’s a rather special fly‚ breaking down organic waste‚ returning nutrients to the soil and in the process becoming rich in protein‚ unsaturated fats‚ calcium‚ zinc and iron.

In fact‚ the “Entomilk” the ice-cream is made from has five times the protein of cow’s milk - almost as much as red meat - and its amino acid profile is better suited to the human body‚ according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

It’s also lactose-free‚ which is a significant factor in South Africa‚ given that 80% of the black population is lactose intolerant.

And with insects requiring just a fraction of the land‚ water‚ and feeding that traditional livestock does to produce the same amount of protein‚ this milk ticks the sustainability box too.

There’s no way that traditional forms of protein will be able to provide for 9.6-billion people by 2050‚ says Gourmet Grubb founder Leah Bessa - a Stellenbosh University food science graduate - so insect milk is an idea whose time has come.

The only downside is the yuck factor - two billion people around the world eat insects‚ many of them in Africa‚ but there’s no escaping the fact that fly larvae is a very hard sell in South Africa.

“Ice cream is a means to get people to try it‚ to help them get past the perception of eating insects‚” Bessa told delegates at the FoodNext.Africa conference in Cape Town.

“But the milk can be used as a dairy milk substitute in many other ways.”

The company had been overwhelmed by the response to its Entomilk‚ Bessa said. “We’ve had enquiries from early adopters all over the world.”

For now the insect ice cream is only being sold on Saturdays at the Earth Fair Market in Tokai‚ but it will be more widely available from December.

So what does it taste like? Good enough to banish images of teeming fly larvae‚ that’s for sure.