BBC presenter Greg Foot ‘tastes’ own flesh through biopsy of muscle taken from leg

The leg muscle of a human has similar muscle fibres of chicken breast and some beef cuts, but when cooked, has an aroma between lamb and pork. The experiment was made by a man aptly named Greg Foot who had a biopsy taken from his leg.

To examine the structure of the leg muscle, he had a scientific analysis done. For the aroma, Foot had chemical analysis of the smell. Foot, a BBC presenter, made the video "What Does Human Flesh Taste Like?" and he posted the clip on Saturday at BBC’s Brit Lab YouTube channel.

He had to have a biopsy taken from his right thigh because it is illegal to eat human flesh in the UK. The laboratory technician took three chunks from the quadricep muscles of Foot’s thigh and analysed it under the microscope, reports Science Alert.

Foot actually did not taste the biopsy but relied on the aroma which is about 80 percent of taste. To do that, he went to a lab in Nottingham where the biopsy was cooked and chemically analysed.

He describes the smell as really meaty, but at the same time, very distinctive. Then Foot made up a mixture of the meats based on the chemical analysis and cooked it as a burger. Upon tasting it, he confirms the taste is “beefy and lamby” but very good.

Besides being an illegal act, eating human flesh is a venue to transmit regular diseases as well as kuru, a deadly and incurable disease found in tribes in Papua New Guinea that still practices cannibalism. The disease, related to the human form of mad cow’s disease, is believed to be spread by prions.