Did Bill Gates introduce a so-called "maggot milk" product called EntoMilk? No, that's not true: Although EntoMilk, made from insects, was an actual product that existed in South Africa in 2019, Gates was not a part of its release. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told Lead Stories that the claim he was involved is false. The website of the startup that created the product appears to have been taken over by others posting unrelated content since early 2023.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by Slay News on June 21, 2024. The headline of the article read:
Bill Gates Launches 'Maggot Milk' to Feed General Public
This is what the article looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Slay News screenshot taken on Wed Jul 3 15:08:12 2024 UTC)
InfoWars inspired the false claim
The conspiracy news outlet InfoWars, founded by radio host Alex Jones, seemed to be the first to associate Gates with EntoMilk. A post published on the InfoWars website on June 20, 2024, stated that "Bill Gates Wants You To Eat Maggot Milk." The post also included a video with Jones discussing EntoMilk, or what he calls "maggot milk." Beginning at the 3:28 mark of the video, Jones states:
... And Bill Gates is involved in these companies. Bill Gates wants you to drink maggot milk, that's our headline.
Gates did not launch EntoMilk
There is no evidence that Gates participated in the launch of EntoMilk. In an email sent to Lead Stories on July 3, 2024, media relations for the Gates Foundation stated:
To your inquiry, this claim is false.
Lead Stories also did a search using keywords on Google and Google News, visible here and here, respectively, that found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim. We also used Google to search for mention of Gourmet Grubb and EntoMilk, visible here and here, respectively, on the website of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That search did not generate any results. The investment portfolio (archived here) listed on the foundation's website -- which includes active and exited investments -- also did not show Gourmet Grubb or EntoMilk.
EntoMilk was created as a product by Gourmet Grubb, a company started by four entrepreneurs in 2017 and based in South Africa. The startup stated that the product was made from black soldier fly larvae and was designed to be a dairy milk alternative. As CNN reported in 2019, Gourmet Grubb was only released in South Africa (archived here) and also started a pop-up called The Insect Experience (archived here) that served insect-based food in Cape Town, South Africa.
At the time of writing of this article, the website (archived here) associated with the company no longer appears to be owned by the startup and according to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine appears to have been taken over by someone else at least since early 2023. The company's Instagram and X accounts have not been active since 2020. Lead Stories reached out to De Novo Foodlabs, a startup co-founded by some of the founders of Gourmet Grubb for comment on the claim. We will update this story with any relevant response.
Other fact checks
More Lead Stories fact checks related to Bill Gates can be found here.
