Cheese Made From Foot Bacteria

If something smells strange, we typically will not eat it. Foot cheese is certainly one of them! One major exception to this rule involves real cheese. Cheese has cemented itself in our hearts as a great ingredient as well as one of the more smelly parts of our appetite. In fact, cheese like Munster, Epoisses, and Blue Stilton are known for their captivating if not eye watering odors.

What helps to create the smells we are familiar with are the bacterial cultures in the cheese. These cultures will create specific smells and tastes. So what happens if you take bacteria that is not normally used to produce cheese and then do just that? More to the point, what would happen if you took bacteria from say your belly button or your toe and tried to use it to make cheese? Well, some enterprising scientists decided to do just that.

Using Cheese As A Canvas

The project Selfmade shows the various things that can be made and explored with the human body. Recently, a noted scent expert Sissel Tolaas as well as the scientist Christina Agapakis took bacteria from a person’s armpit, belly button, and toes. The intended goal was to use these bacteria to produce a variety of cheese. With an exhibition in Dublin, the team behind this research talks about how the cheese becomes the canvas, or landscape for individuals in this case to better understand the various bacteria on their body. By using a cheese to create a “microbial sketch,” the cheese becomes the vehicle for us to better understand ourselves. In this case the end result is a bunch of very smelly cheeses. So, how did they do this?

The Process

First samples are collected from different people’s toes, belly button, and armpits. Individually, the samples are grown in culture dishes that allow the bacteria to grow and multiply. 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing is used to identify each of the bacteria so that the team can better understand exactly what bacteria are being used to create the cheese. Once the bacterial cultures are grown, traditional cheese making techniques are used with the bacterial cultures from people being substituted in for what would normally be used.

How Did The Cheese Turn Out?

Simply put, the cheese was just as smelly as the part of the body that it came from. Each one had a unique composition, shape, and odor unique to the person and place that it came from. A series of tests were run to determine exactly what organisms were present in each of the cheeses. With the smelliest mass produced cheeses created from similar bacteria as to those found in the armpits and feet, it is no wonder that actual bacteria from these places produced even smellier cheeses. With how these cheeses were produced, it comes as no surprise that no one dared to eat them.

What Was Learned Through This Process?

As the team behind the cheese pointed out, using human bacteria to grow cheese is a fascinating way to illustrate both the organisms that live and inhabit our own body as well as products that people are very familiar with. Intersecting the world of food and personal hygiene as well as an antimicrobial culture set in a rich and diverse microbial world, the Selfmade hopes to answer questions like whether or not knowledge of bacterial cultures in our food can improve bacterial growth in our bodies. As every person has a unique set of bacteria living on their skin as well as in their bodies, more research will be needed to continue and expand on these findings.

Until then, this set of 11 cheeses will continue to be on display in Dublin, perhaps in the future even making its smelly way to a museum near you.