Maybe it tastes like chicken, but activists aren't buying it

March 22, 2004|By Rosie Mestel, Tribune newspapers: Los Angeles Times.

STOKESLEY, England — Refrigerated trucks trundle down the pretty country lanes laden with pale, doughy masses of fungus--32 tons or more a day.

"Pure mycoprotein--good enough to eat, won't taste of anything, very bland," declares manufacturing manager Pete Willis, tearing off a golf ball-sized sample from a 2,000-pound glob.

Workers in white boots shepherd the fungal paste through a sea of vats and clanking machines that mix, press, slice and dice the raw dough.

What comes out at the end is a matter of perspective--luscious artificial meat patties that taste like juicy chicken, or dangerous vat-grown "vomit burgers" that are sickening many consumers.

The product is Quorn, a fungus-based meat substitute that millions of Europeans have eaten for years. It entered the U.S. market in 2002 to rave reviews by consumers but was quickly met with a dogged anti-Quorn campaign by an influential consumer group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Michael Jacobson, the CSPI's executive director, claims that Quorn, which he derisively terms an "odious" mold-based product, makes people ill--and he wants every last nugget expunged from American soil.

He has started a "Quorn complaints" Web site, published anti-Quorn letters in medical journals and petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to yank the product.

"It seems in the FDA's eyes severe vomiting, diarrhea and anaphylactic reactions do not constitute harm," Jacobson said. "I think that's pathetic."

Quorn's makers, based in the Yorkshire town of Stokesley, say they are perplexed and irked over the complaints about what they call their "mushroom"-related product.

More than 1 billion servings of Quorn's 100-plus dishes have been eaten in Europe since the first savory pie was rolled out with pomp in 1985--with no known deaths.

Several leading allergy experts say there is no evidence suggesting special problems with Quorn, although a few people can be expected to react badly to the fungus, just as some might to any other foodstuff.

"We wouldn't be the No. 1 best-selling [meat substitute] in the U.K. and Europe if we had the kinds of reactions that Michael Jacobson is claiming," said Nick Hughes, managing director of Quorn's maker, Marlow Foods Ltd.

So far, Quorn is winning the fight. More than 6 million servings have been sold in the U.S., the brand is the No. 1-selling poultry alternative in U.S. health-food stores and its nuggets are the overall best-selling fake meat, according to SPINS, a market researcher specializing in the natural-food industry.

Accustomed to a fight

But Jacobson is accustomed to a fight. He's the man who helped get warning labels on foods containing the fat substitute Olestra with a relentless campaign and battled to require food companies to display the trans-fat content of their products on nutrition labels.

There's more at stake than just another meatless patty. For the CSPI, it's part of a broad battle over the soul and safety of modern food, pitting the wholesomeness of Mother Nature against the corrupting power of big business and biotechnology.

"Quorn is about as far from natural as you can get," Jacobson recently wrote. "There is an abundance of healthful meat alternatives made with things that come from farms, like soybeans, mushrooms, rice. ... If you're going to sell a food that comes from a lab, a test tube or a giant vat, it should at least not make so many people sick."

Quorn is made from the fungus Fusarium venenatum, which consists of tiny, translucent strands. The fibers' thickness and branching patterns give Quorn a springiness and feel similar to animal muscle.

"Delish!" said vegetarian Heidi Johnson, 40, of La Crescenta, Calif., who relishes the Quorn nuggets. "I don't eat many meat-substitute products. ... Most of them taste awful or have a really disgusting consistency."

Culinary accolades are not quite what Quorn's creators had in mind when they started work on the product in the 1960s.

News reports said a soaring world population would starve within decades unless a plentiful protein source was found. Petroleum and chemical companies began coaxing potentially edible yeasts, molds and bacteria to grow on nutrients such as sugar cane, cassava, petroleum waste and manure.

J. Arthur Rank, then-chairman of the British food company Rank Hovis McDougall, set his scientists on the project--focusing on fungi, which are high in protein and already eaten by people as yeast and mushrooms.

Thousands of fungal samples

The team tested thousands of fungal samples for their ease of growth, nutrition and texture. But the fungus they finally selected was British-grown, found in some soil right near the company's research center.

Rank's project survived long enough to hook onto the growing health movement. In 1985, after reviewing animal and human safety tests, the British government approved the sale of mycoprotein.

When Quorn arrived in the United States 17 years later, health-food fans embraced its chicken-like taste.