# Turning human corpses into food for humans, safely, hygienically, economically - how? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2008, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544 "2008-05-16T13:13:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/1 "2008-05-16T13:13:03Z")
Suppose all ethical, religious and ‘ick’-based objections are magically resolved, what would be the most energy-efficient method of recycling human corpses to produce food for humans. Considerations/criteria (These are not magically resolved): -The risk of transmitting disease (including stuff like prions) must be as near zero as possible -The process must be the most efficient possible in terms of yield (nutritional food value) vs energy expenditure and raw materials. So what would be the best way to put the dead to work? ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/2 "2008-05-16T13:14:41Z")
Would it be similar to other meat we eat-we’d need to kill them? I don’t think we’d want to eat downer people. Save that for dog food. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/3 "2008-05-16T13:17:22Z")
[This link](http://tinyurl.com/2hdlf) has some ideas. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/4 "2008-05-16T13:23:11Z")
You would have to raise them under the same scrutiny organically raised beef, lamb etc are raised under. Free-raised people does not sound that yum. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/5 "2008-05-16T13:25:18Z")
I don’t have an answer to your gq, but I think it’s hilarious that someone with your username should ask it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/6 "2008-05-16T13:25:28Z")
[QUOTE=fisha] Would it be similar to other meat we eat-we’d need to kill them? I don’t think we’d want to eat downer people. [/QUOTE] I don’t think there’s any way to safely use humans for food _directly_ - because of the risk of prions and other diseases - I was thinking more along the lines of either the most energy efficient method of processing corpses into useful fertiliser for crops, or maybe some industrial soylent green-type process that could turn them into a food product (or animal feed), but a safe one. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/7 "2008-05-16T13:25:51Z")
I’m afraid you’re taking your user name a little too literally. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/8 "2008-05-16T13:26:45Z")
And no, I’m not talking about killing humans for food, or farming humans for the table. Corpses - the bodies of people already dead for assorted normal reasons. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/9 "2008-05-16T13:32:48Z")
I can see the sign at Tesco… “Human corpses, fresh today, buy one get one free” Plus Clubcard points to!!! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/10 "2008-05-16T13:34:55Z")
The Forums Home screen just said: Turning human corpses into… chowder ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/11 "2008-05-16T13:35:43Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] I don’t think there’s any way to safely use humans for food _directly_ - because of the risk of prions and other diseases - I was thinking more along the lines of either the most energy efficient method of processing corpses into useful fertiliser for crops, or maybe some industrial soylent green-type process that could turn them into a food product (or animal feed), but a safe one. [/QUOTE] I’m wondering also if they could be rendered down as a growth medium for quorn or other quorn-like fungi. Maybe soupifying the corpses and then irradiating the soup would be enough to eliminate the prion risk ( I know that prions can survive standard autoclaving, but what about autoclaving and irradiation?)… then you could just pump the resultant glop into your bioreactor and cream off the Quorn at regular points. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/12 "2008-05-16T13:39:41Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] The Forums Home screen just said: Turning human corpses into… chowder [/QUOTE] :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/13 "2008-05-16T13:40:26Z")
Dunno - prions are just little bits of protein that fold the wrong way. I think applying enough radiation to destroy them would be more or less equivalent to cremation. I can’t imagine there being any safe way to keep the protein as protein safely - seems it would have to be the fertiliser route - unless there is an intermediate organism or chain of organisms that could be guaranteed to reprocess the protein into some safe form. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/14 "2008-05-16T13:43:00Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Dunno - prions are just little bits of protein that fold the wrong way. I think applying enough radiation to destroy them would be more or less equivalent to cremation. [/QUOTE] Actually thinking about it, you could probably enzymatically digest al the meat from the corpses, use the resulting slurry as mycological growth media and then grind the bones for fertiliser for other crops. Dual use! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/15 "2008-05-16T14:00:00Z")
Then, mix the resulting Quorn with some soybeans and lentil meal, and dye it a green tint! ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/16 "2008-05-16T14:23:54Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] :eek: [/QUOTE] Certainly made you clam up, eh? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/17 "2008-05-16T14:48:39Z")
Calling someone a cracker takes on a whole new meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/18 "2008-05-16T14:58:00Z")
If you’re going to just cook the meat, I imagine cooking under the same classical pork standards would work. No human meat pate or anything, but well done roasts, steaks, and stews might work. The problem with eating only “normally dead” flesh is that the quality would vary, a lot. Who’s gonna want to eat the stringy meat of a 90 year old man? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/19 "2008-05-16T14:59:30Z")
It’s **PEOPLE**! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544/20 "2008-05-16T15:04:50Z")
[QUOTE=beowulff] It’s **PEOPLE**! [/QUOTE] Yes, but how are we going to serve man? It’s the cookbook that I’m interested in. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turning-human-corpses-into-food-for-humans-safely-hygienically-economically-how/449544.md?page=2)