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COLUMBIA — Those looking to taste the seasonal flavor of cicada ice cream at Sparky's Homemade Ice Cream will no longer have an opportunity to do so.
Sparky's approached the Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services and asked about the use of cicadas in the ice cream, Gerry Worley, environmental health manager for the department, said.
- Columbia and most of the state are being swarmed by noisy guests that pop in, raise a ruckus looking for females and leave debris all over the countryside: cicadas.
"The food code doesn't directly address cicadas," Worley said. "We advised against it."
Sparky's introduced the cicada ice cream last week and met with such surprising demand that it sold out the day before it was set to debut. The store was going to make another batch for the weekend, but a sign on the door told customers it would not be back until 2024.
When making the first half batch of ice cream, the cicadas were boiled and fully cooked through, Sparky's manager Ashley Nagel said. Food code does not address how cicadas should be cooked.
"The food code tells us how high the temperature should be," Worley said of normally cooked foods such as fish, chicken and beef. The department does not have that information for cicadas.
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Not that I would eat the ice cream but e-How seems to have suggestions that the health dept could follow? Also, if the health dept. does not have suggestions on how the cicadas should be cooked, they cannot have 'code violations' for selling the ice cream right? Anyway, here is what e-How had to say: http://www.ehow.com/how_2063610_cook-cic...
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I'm confused. The article doesn't say the Health Department made them stop.
There's lots of confusion around this, D Leek. Sparky's called the health department on their own and were advised to not make any more. They were not, however TOLD not to make more. No food code regulations address the use of cicadas.
— Joy Mayer, Columbia Missourian
That wasn't the original story. They said coming Thursday, 6-2-11 "We've got ice cream", then said that they had "sold out" Thursday morning. Sparky's then received another news piece where they described the frenzied customers on Wednesday night (a fabrication apparently).
Sparky's went on to say they were preparing another 'batch' for Saturday or Sunday. Which if true means they either (1) hadn't yet contact the health dept. or (2) Indeed contacted the health dept. and were stringing people along for the "gross-out/interest factor.
The story citing the Health Department's meetup didn't surface until Monday, 6-6-11. While I don't doubt the Health Department's claim, this whole series of events stinks of cover-up. I really don't understand it. Is Sparky's some fixture of the community besides an ice cream store which commands deference to a series of conflicting stories?
This last "Health Department" story has grown a lot more than 6 legs and is now being reported across the state and all over the "Web".