Overview

• A peer-reviewed study in iScience from the University of Copenhagen and DTU verifies that a traditional method using forest ants can produce a yogurt-like fermentation.
• Following local guidance in a Bulgarian village, the team put four live wood ants into warm milk and left the jar in an anthill overnight, yielding thicker, sour milk by morning.
• Laboratory analyses found lactic- and acetic-acid bacteria associated with the ants, with insect-derived acids lowering pH to enable milk coagulation and some microbes resembling sourdough cultures.
• Live ants generated effective starter cultures whereas frozen or dried ants did not, and researchers caution against home trials because ants may carry parasites.
• The findings underscore greater microbial diversity than typical commercial yogurts and have already informed dishes at Copenhagen’s two‑Michelin‑star Alchemist, where tasters described the result as mildly piquant.