Missouri cicada ice cream seller told to cool it

[June 08, 2011]  COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- A public health official in central Missouri has asked an ice cream shop to cool it with the cicada ice cream, even though customers apparently can't get enough of it.

Sparky's Homemade Ice Cream in Columbia, Mo., sold out of its only batch of the insect-filled dessert within hours of its June 1 debut.

The Columbia-Missourian says employees collected the cicadas in their backyards and removed most of the dead bugs' wings. They then boiled the bugs and covered them in brown sugar and milk chocolate. The base ice cream is brown sugar and butter flavor.

Gerry Worley, an environmental health chief with the Columbia County Department of Public Health, says the agency's food code "doesn't directly address cicadas" and that he has advised against their use as an ingredient.

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Information from: Columbia Missourian, http://www.columbiamissourian.com/

[Associated Press]

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