# What foods do humans eat that are made of dung or waste products from other life forms

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-do-humans-eat-that-are-made-of-dung-or-waste-products-from-other-life-forms/695362>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 12, 2014, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-do-humans-eat-that-are-made-of-dung-or-waste-products-from-other-life-forms/695362 "2014-08-12T11:44:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-do-humans-eat-that-are-made-of-dung-or-waste-products-from-other-life-forms/695362/21 "2014-08-13T07:43:36Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> That expensive coffee that’s made from beans after they’ve been eaten and excreted.

Kopi Luwak probably, from civets. The “cool” new one is “Black Ivory Coffee” that comes from elephants (warning: [video annoyingly autoplays](http://abcnews.go.com/Business/elephant-dung-coffee-smooth-rich-expensive/story?id=18730668)). $50/“serving.”

…and, at least on my end, the video transitions to yuppies addicted to taking coffee enemas :rolleyes:.

> [@bibliophage](#):
>
> [Ambergris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris#Applications) is a material produced in a whale’s digestive tract and excreted anally. Before its possession was outlawed, it was frequently used in perfumes and rarely as a food additive.

Indeed. Just yesterday I saw this [Punch](http://www.npr.org/2010/12/30/132444994/a-vintage-cocktail-that-packs-a-punch) recipe that used it. It’s not illegal in many countries though, and doesn’t harm the whale. It’s not terribly worth the price to eat though, I’d imagine.

> [@Saturn\_Dreams](#):
>
> The first thing that came to my mind was cheese. Cheese mites are usually the bane of cheese makers, but for Mimolette they are celebrated for giving it the cheese its delicate aroma and distinctive nutty flavour imparted from the carcasses and excrement of the mites working from the rind, inwards.
> 
> Going one step further, Italy has the legendary Casu Marzu which is made by having flies lay eggs in young cheese. The larvae hatch and eat the cheese from the inside and leave behind excrement that break down the cheese to give it its creamy/gloopy texture and stinging mouth sensation.

Also Milbenkäse uses mites. It translates to exactly what you’d expect it to translate to. The town it’s made in has a [cool monument](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milbenk%C3%A4se).

> [@Blake](#):
>
> That is completely incorrect, no matter how you twist it.

Which part? The 100% is demonstrably incorrect for some species, but do all termite species have at least \*some \*cellulose digestive capability? [Trichonympha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichonympha).

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