Quorn is a meat substitute product sold worldwide, primarily in Europe. It is sold as both a cooking ingredient and as the meat substitute used in a range of prepackaged meals.
All Quorn foods contain mycoprotein as an ingredient, which is derived from the Fusarium venenatum fungus. In most Quorn products, the fungus culture is dried and mixed with egg albumen, which acts as a binder, and then is adjusted in texture and pressed into various forms. A vegan formulation also exists that uses potato protein as a binder instead of egg albumen.
(Source: Wikipedia (extract))
In an “Inews” article, February 2020, it was noted that not just sales of “vegan mince” and other products were booming, but that the Quorn company had started supplying ingredients to UK food retailers for their own products, including KFC in their “zero chicken” burgers, and Greggs in their vegan sausage rolls.
Similarly, Quorn are making inroads in the US vegetarian and vegan market. For example in January 2020 they announced that Hooters “UNreal Wings” will be made using Quorn Vegetarian Meatless Wings.
Regarding the quality of the protein, the Quorn website carried an article in April 2020 “Quorn protein builds muscle better than milk protein”. It reported on a university study showing that Quorn mycoprotein stimulates post-exercise muscle building to a greater extent than milk protein.
So, is Quorn a good idea?
If you are vegetarian (allowing consumption of eggs), or just want to reduce your animal protein intake, then Quorn seems a great substitute for meat in your cooking, and an increasingly likely ingredient in processed food and bakery products, to compete with soya.
If you’re vegan, and perhaps concerned that you’re not getting enough protein in your diet, then Quorn seems a good solution, especially as a change from the dominance of soya products.
But when buying supermarket Quorn products, be sure to check that they are the vegan variety that don’t use eggs.
Link to my post on “Soya”