Alternative proteins are on the rise. Supermarket shelves are filled with plant-based burgers and bacon, as well as sausages and their creatively-named comrades, chikns and mylks. The UK saw a rise in the sales of meat substitutes, with 582 million selling ($800 million) in 2014 and 816 million ($1.1 million) in 2019. Venture capital follows customers wherever they go. Alternative protein companies raised nearly 2.2 billion dollars ($3.1 billion) in funding in 2020. Nearly 600 million dollars ($700 million) went to Impossible Foods. This company, along with Beyond Meatre, redefined what people wanted from veggie burgers when they released their plant-based, beefy burgers.WIRED UK Original story.While fancy burgers are the current star of the alternative protein scene's fanciest food, a humbler food is poised to take the spotlight. A number of startups are ready and willing to bring this often-understood food back to life.It is not a new idea to turn fungi into proteins. J. Arthur Rank, a British film mogul and flour baron, was searching for a way of turning all his excess wheat into human-friendly protein in the mid-1960s. The Ranks scientists studied more than 3000 different fungi and found the answer in a compost heap located in a village south of High Wycombe, England. *Fusarium veneratum* was the funguslater that Ranks identified. This perfectly met their requirements. It was easy to grow in fermenters and turned into mycoprotein, a high-protein, flavorless food. This mycoprotein was approved to be sold in 1985, however the first products were a trio of savory pie products that studiously avoided any mention of fungi. Quorn was the brand name for this mycoprotein. (Fungi can be described as mushrooms, yeasts and molds. Mycoprotein is made from the roots-like threads below the ground, which are mushrooms.Quorn was a slow cooker. It was a very basic vegetarian food, according to Tim Finnigan who joined Marlow Foods in 1988. He says that there was not a real understanding of the food security issues and that we needed to find solutions. We needed new healthy proteins with low environmental impacts. The company didn't turn a profit until 1998 and the brand has been traded between large food conglomerates as well as private equity firms over the years. Monde Nissin Corporation is the current owner. This company, which is based in the Philippines, makes noodles, crackers and a jelly-based beverage that's meant to help with stress.Quorn, despite its relatively unloved status has held a close-to-monopoly in mycoprotein production. Marlow Foods was the sole patent holder over the Quorn fermentation process for 20 years. Although those patents have expired, Marlow Foods still has a significant advantage in the production of mycoprotein on an industrial scale. Quorns mycoprotein can be made in 150,000-liter fermenters that shuttle the fungi around in continuous loop-de-loops as they eat a wheat-based sugar solution. The fungi are ready for harvest after four days. They can be harvested at a rate that is two tons per hour for the next thirty days. After the mycoprotein has been frozen, it is pushed together by its long strands, giving Quorn its chicken-like texture. The mycoprotein can then be flavored and transformed into any of a variety of meat analogs such as mince, fish fingers or turkey dinosaurs.A new wave of mycoprotein businesses sees a bright future for mycoprotein. Ramkumar Nair (CEO of Swedish company Mycorena) says that mycoprotein is increasingly being used as an ingredient. Ramkumar Nair, CEO of Swedish company Mycorena, stated that we aim to become a supplier for ingredients to all food companies that make vegan products. Mycorena has so far partnered with Swedish brands in order to produce mycoprotein-based meatballs and sausages as well as chicken nuggets. Now, the company is developing cold cuts, bacon, and protein balls.
