We haven’t yet tested it but we’re loving it already. A group of graduate students from Cornell University created a tofu-like product that is entirely made of mealworm protein The Cornell Daily Sun says. The product is known as “c-fu,” which blends two words: the Chinese words that mean curd–“to-fu” to-fu in Chinese is “bean curd”–with”C,” the Chinese letter “C” as the original c-fu was created using cricket protein. In the spirit of innovation, it was discovered that mealworm-fu was more delicious than cricket-fu.
Similar to other insect food items that are available, c-fu aims at making something as attractive as meat, yet has less impact on the natural environment. Bugs consume less land, consume less food, and release fewer greenhouse gases for each kilogram of protein they produce in comparison to larger animals like chickens and cattle. In an article on their blog, the team calculated that an area larger than Rhode Island, full of farm-raised mealworms could provide food for two billion individuals.
For the appeal, the participants have posted beautiful pictures of C-Fu-inspired dishes in their blogs. They also captured their fellow classmates’ reactions after trying the dish. “It’s very tasty,” one tester opines. “It tasted like firm tofu” adds another.
To create the mealworm cubes Cornell students devised a method to separate the protein from the worms that have been ground up and then to transform the proteins into tofu-like cubes. Though it requires 10,000 mealworms in order to make 1 pound of c-fu the product produced has around more protein per pound than egg and has more protein than tofu the team claims. It also has omega-3 and omega-6 fats. A diet high in these nutrients is linked to less risk of developing heart disease.
The company will showcase c-fu at a conference named Thought For Food next month. It will be competing in the $10,000 range of seed money, in order to transform C-fu into a product that can be sold in supermarkets.
