A woman holding her baby sits in a street at a slum in Mumbai
A woman holding her baby sits in a street at a slum in Mumbai January 28, 2014. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
A woman holding her baby sits in a street at a slum in Mumbai January 28, 2014.

Next time you eat healthier sausage, you may have to thank baby poop for the "quality". Researchers claim that baby poop can be used to make sausages which are healthier.

A new research reveals that the bacteria in baby poor have the "qualities" to help give sausages a delicious taste. At the same time, those can make sausages even healthier. It works much like the way health food products such as probiotic yogurts are made.

LiveScience reported that using bacteria in making drinks and food is not something new. People have been using the technique for millennia, it said. Various cultures around the globe have different ways of using bacteria to make eatables and drinks. The dairy industry, the wine industry and the meat industry are heavily dependent on bacteria.

While it is impossible to form cheese without using starters that contain bacteria, milk products like yoghurt require fermentation which is done using bacteria. Yeasts are used for the process of fermentation that produces alcohol. On the other hand, fermented meat products like pepperoni, salami and chorizo are developed with lactic bacteria. Different types of bacteria help sausages develop the tangy flavour which they are most appreciated for.

Spanish scientists argued that probiotic bacteria which are found in most fermented food products could well be used for fermenting sausages. According to food microbiologist Anna Jofré, this will give an opportunity to consumers, who do not prefer dairy products, to consume probiotic foods without eating dairy products.

Probiotic bacteria, however, must survive the acids present in the human digestive tract in order to work. That is how researchers concentrated more on microbes which are found active in human faeces. Researchers focused on 43 faecal samples taken from healthy infants who were aged 6 months or less. The contributors consisted mostly of midwives who delivered "samples" taken off diapers.

According to the researchers, infant faeces contain enough microbes to produce healthy sausages. Professional tasters as well as scientists endorsed that the "poop" sausages were equally tasty even though they were much healthier.

Additional information from EFFCA.