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Think some cheese smells like feet? Well, now there’s a cheese that has more than just that foot odor – it’s actually made from human foot bacteria. An exhibit in Dublin features cheese made
by taking swabs of human bacteria – from armpits, mouths, in between toes and in belly buttons – and adding milk to it. Biologist Christina Agapakis worked with odor artist Sissel Tolaas to
create the cheeses, which they hope will challenge how we think about bacteria. “Cheese is actually a really great model organism for us to think about good and bad bacteria but also good
and bad smells,” Agapakis said at a presentation at the PopTech conference last month. She noted that there are similar species of bacteria living in cheese and in between our toes. “Can
knowledge and tolerance of bacterial cultures in our food improve tolerance of the bacteria on our bodies?” Agapakis and Tolaas ask in their statement about the “Selfmade” exhibit. The
exhibit’s series of “microbial sketches” – which includes cheese made from bacteria of well-known figures like food writer Michael Pollan and artist Olafur Eliasson – smell of the body odor
of the donor, Agapakis told the magazine Dezeen. So the cheese is made from humans, by humans, but not for humans – to consume, at least. “This isn’t cheese for eating,” Agapakis said at
PopTech. “This is cheese for thinking.” [email protected]_ _Follow me on Twitter: @lauraelizdavis_ MORE TO READ