Soldiers eating Ork burgers is referenced in a few works based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Given the very strange physiology of the 40k Orks, could humans actually ingest them?
I am referring to standard Imperium humans and not Space Marines, who could probably eat a raw Ork and its boots without issue.
I am particularly looking for references in official source material.
Answer
EDIT:
So I flipped through my copy of Rogue Trader and this is really the only section I found that relates:
"...Humans and Orks share a similar physiology, and require the same sort of worlds on which to live..."
Beyond that there was not much. I flipped through all the subsequent rulebooks and could not find much either. I never really thought about it but only the last few rulebooks had larger sections on the lore of species. The first few only had a quick paragraph to introduce them and then rules.
Quite honestly I would expect to find a section about humans eating orks within either an Imperial Guard codex or within a novel. I was hoping there would be excerpt section in one of the books that described something, but I could not find anything in any of them. I do not have any books on the IG or Orks to expand beyond that unfortunately; and i do not remember any of the Tanith eating Orks so my knowledge of IG novels is spent there as well!
Unless you comment otherwise I will likely delete this entire answer in a few days once I think you have had a chance to see it. Hopefully someone else has something more positive to contribute...
TL;DR:
- This answer is a place holder until i get a chance to look up details when i get home. the extra details are also too long for a comment...
- Rogue Trader may mention that humans can eat ork.
- A lot of food that is eaten by humans in not from Earth, obviously. This means humans are eating alien flora and fauna.
- Toward the cannibalism topic above, apparently it happens at least in hive cities and i'm sure when the need is dire...
Doing a quick search online i just read something that mentioned humans eating ork in the original rogue trader. I am at work now, but i will try to remember to flip my copy open tonight and if i see anything definitive i will throw in update for you. If I can not find anything definitive or someone else posts something definitive I will likely just delete this answer.
I think it is worth mentioning the obvious. There is no way Earth could feed the Imperium as a whole, or even the agri-worlds. Therefore, humans are eating flora and fauna from other worlds. Given the size and scope of the Imperium I would argue that this means that humans for whatever reason have either developed a tougher digestive system to adapt or that the galaxy has "similar bio-chemistry" from planet to planet (at least on survivable worlds). Given that orks and humans can survive under the same conditions, the bio-chemistry between the two could be "in the same neighborhood" and they could be edible both ways as well. If that logic makes sense...
I also found this passage toward the strange cannibalism topic that was begun above... if anyone cares... it is from a 40k wiki...
Soylens Viridians - A bland but otherwise filling and somewhat nutritious vat-grown foodstuff. It is also known as "Corpse-Starch" as it is said to be made from human corpses, mixed with random dead animals, plants, and other sources of dead biomatter typically disposed of in Hive cities to be recycled into food to lessen waste. Soylens Viridians is a common staple among underhives, military rations, and other places where high demand for food meets low standards for taste. Several Mechanicus worlds in the Damocles Gulf favor it, considering it a far more efficient means of ingesting nutrients than plain animal tissue. Ciaphas Cain complains about the lack of flavour on a few occasions in his private memoirs.
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