I see steak, but where are the cows?

We're all familiar with what to do if life gives you lemons - you make lemonade, right? But what if life literally hands you a turd? Well, if you're Japanese researcher, Mitsuyuki Ikeda, you do this: create an edible steak made from human feces.

Beef, or feces?  Better have the chicken instead. . .

When Tokyo Sewage approached Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a researcher from the Okayama Laboratory, and asked him to explore potential uses for an overabundance of sewage mud, Ikeda found that, because of all the bacteria, the mud contained large amounts of proteins.

Ikeda and his team isolated those proteins, combined them with a reaction enhancer and put it in an exploder, thereby creating le cuisine de merde. The lab-grown steak is made from 63 percent proteins, 25 percent carbohydrates, 3 percent lipids, 9 percent minerals (and 100 percent you've-got-to-be-kidding-me). Researchers enhanced the flavor with soy protein and used red coloring to give the poo-burger that appetizing, meaty charm. According to DigitalTrends, initial taste-tasters have said the butt steaks even taste like beef.

But is this meat safe?

Experts say, in theory, yes. But to kill any toxic pathogens, the meat must obviously be cooked.

"In the food safety world we say, 'don't eat poop," Douglas Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University, told MyHealthNewsDaily. "But if you're going to, make sure it's cooked."

Powell did say there was a potential for cross contamination in the lab where the bowel loaf was developed, but said the idea in not that different from eating vegetables that have been fertilized with manure or other excrement.

"Theoretically, there's nothing wrong with this," Powell added."It could be quite safe to eat, but I'm sure there's a yuck factor there."

Bon appétit!