In a latest discovery, an international group of researchers have found that milk-like protein crystals made by Diploptera punctata cockroaches are packed with calories and nutrition. It may be good news for scientists worrying about feeding hungry stomachs across the planet, but gross news for anyone, squeamish regarding cockroaches.

The crystals are over four times as nutritious as the milk of cow, and could be the key to feeding the world’s growing population in the coming time.

The bug is mainly known as the Pacific beetle cockroach. It is the only one known to bear live young. The mother roach creates the protein crystals to nourish and feed her embryos in the brood sac.

In a laboratory, scientists sequenced the genes to make the milk protein reproduce the substance. These crystals can be called a complete meal. They are packed with proteins, fats and sugars. In case the protein sequences are taken into consideration, the crystals posses all the essential amino acids.

The thought of insect producing milk is very fascinating, but what left researchers stunned was that a single one of such protein crystals has over three times the energy one gets from an equivalent amount of buffalo milk.

In case ever, the cockroach-inspired protein crystals hits the shelves of the consumer food market, the manufacturer will face a somewhat PR nightmare to deal with. This is because ‘Cockroach milk, it is good for body’ doesn’t sound right at all.

While speaking to The Times of India, scientist Subramanian Ramaswamy said something to convince people: ‘If you need food that is calorifically high, that is time released and food that is complete, this is it’. Ramaswamy has projected the usage of crystals as a protein supplement.

A study, titled ‘Structure of a heterogeneous, glycosylated, lipid-bound, in vivo-grown protein crystal at atomic resolution from the viviparous cockroach Diploptera punctata’, has been published by the researchers in the journal the International Union of Crystallography.