James May, former Top Gear star, stuns viewers in a recent video by cooking and eating cat food, in a bid to prove feline food is safe for human consumption.

May, aged 56, hosted a video on Food Tribe's YouTube channel, where he attempted to show cat food is edible.

Though most of us would never wish to eat pet food of any kind, May faced the challenge head-on.

He showed how it's possible to cook cat food in a frying pan alongside other ingredients, including mashed potatoes.

James began the video by addressing viewers, saying:

"Things have become rather desperate."

He then displayed a packet of Felix on his kitchen worktop and added:

"Cat food is perfectly edible, it is suitable for human consumption, and in fact, it has to be, because the tragedy is that some people, when they get really hard up, eat it."

The TV personality then explained how people in the 1970s were less fortunate and would eat anything to survive.

He said:

"[Cat food] was recognized back in the 1970s. I think that this was happening, so it became the law."

"As I understand… all pet food had to be fit for human consumption."

May then showed a different cat food package, which he claimed his co-host Tom's cat preferred to eat.

He continued:

"Now this is one my cat likes, and this is what Tom's cat likes, which is chicken and cheese."

"This one is beef and poultry [he said of The Felix pouch] whatever that means. So I wouldn't want to eat it straight out of the packet."

"I'll be honest, I'm sure I could do it, but it might be a bit gag-worthy,"

The motor expert explained that by using the cat food packets, he was going to create two separate pies using pre-made mashed potatoes.

May then opens the first packet of cat food, takes a deep sniff of its contents before recoiling:

"Good God... we're going to eat that. I've had pâtés that smell as bad."

He then began to cook the feline food in a pan using some olive oil while mixing the Smash mixture and water in a separate pan.

Once the pies were ready, May proceeded to sniff the unusual concoctions and said:

"I wish I had brought the posh stuff my cat likes and not the p**ey stuff."

After taking a bite, he seemed pleasantly surprised by the taste.

He confessed:

"Needed a little bit more salt but perfectly ok."

May then gave a mouthful to his co-star Tom who also seemed to like it a bit.

Finishing off his review of the cat feast, May said:

"Cat food, as far as we can tell, is perfectly safe to eat, and we are not ill yet."

Tom agreed that humans are 'perfectly fine to eat cat food' because 'we've had worse meals' in the past.