290041 Mon Aug 12 13:42:19 -0700 2002 12 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1572666 Has anyone tried "Quorn mycoprotein" a new meat substitute made from fungus? An AP story (see link) claims that it's making people sick, tho' the FDA has categorized it as "Generally recognized as safe." And labelling it as "in the mushroom family" would be rather like listing rat meat as "in the cattle family" since both are mammals. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=541&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20020812/ap_on_he_me/quorn_1 Mon Aug 12 13:42:19 -0700 2002 0 david in NOLa 1 1572667 The article you cite goes on to say "Quorn, introduced in Britain in 1985, arrived in U.S. supermarkets in January. Its popularity in Europe now rivals that of soyburgers and other meat substitutes." Europe is generally much more sensitive to "engineered" foods than the U.S. Since it's been in wide use there for over 15 years you would think that any allergic reactions would be well known. Mon Aug 12 13:56:12 -0700 2002 1572666 0 Bob Martinez 2 1572686 Yes, I read the part about its popularity in Europe; that's why I wondered about others experiences. It doesn't seem to add up.... Mon Aug 12 16:17:07 -0700 2002 1572667 0 david in NOLa 2 1572687 exactly my thought. but i still need to do more research before i try it. Mon Aug 12 16:18:22 -0700 2002 1572667 0 epicure-us 1 1572682 despite the disingenuous mushroom-family claims, I've had quorn on several occasions. The pseudo chicken versions are probably the best imitation meat I've ever had, and certainly didn't make me (or my wife, or any of our numerous friends at the cookout) sick. but, as someone pointed out "so what, now you have something that's not chicken but it tastes like it." ben Mon Aug 12 15:40:54 -0700 2002 1572666 0 ben f 2 1572702 I tried Quorn recently out of curiosity and agree that it is the best imitation meat product that I have tasted, and no I didn't get sick either(I ate it twice). I think the other problem is selling it to the US consumer is that it doesn't have any side health benefits (unlike the benefits of soy) so the only person who would buy imitation chicken that does a pretty good job of tasting like chicken is a vegetarian who really wants to eat chicken(?)-if that makes sense. Mon Aug 12 17:12:08 -0700 2002 1572682 0 rjka 3 1572747 "so the only person who would buy imitation chicken that does a pretty good job of tasting like chicken is a vegetarian who really wants to eat chicken(?)-if that makes sense" Actually, it does. There are a lot of us who are vegetarians for philosophical or health reasons, who really miss occasionally eating meat. Over time, as there are more and more of us and mixed groups and families need to cook for combinations of vegetarians and semi- or full carnivores, artificial meat is going to become more and more important in this country. I don't ever see vegetarians becoming the majority here, but we will eventually make up a significant proportion. Now, if I can just FIND this product... Tue Aug 13 07:33:02 -0700 2002 1572702 0 fladd 4 1572752 I bought mine at a Whole Foods market, in the frozen case. Tue Aug 13 09:43:19 -0700 2002 1572747 0 rjka 1 1572685 I first ate Quorn over 10 years ago (in the UK). Since then, I've eaten it a couple of times since. I'm not keen on any food that is a meat substitute (tofu burgers, veggie sausages, etc.). Personally, I've never been sick from eating it and my brother has been eating it regularly since the early 90s. I've never heard anything from him about getting remotely ill from eating quorn (though he has told me a graphic account of food poisoning from a KFC piece of "chicken" but that's another story). The AP article link posted is a bit naughty because the headline is "U.S. Decried on Fungus-Based Meat". Quorn is not a meat, it is a meat substitute. I don't think it has ever tried to be marketed as meat. The general impression I get from the US's reaction to the introduction of quorn is that there is hostility. This is based on the potential of quorn to upsurp existing American branded meat substitutes. Quorn is foreign and popular in Europe. It could easily become popular in the US. However, it is my belief that American vegetarian food producers and the FDA are painting a most negative picture of quorn because it is an imported foodstuff. From memory I believe that quorn also contains egg whites as well as the mycoprotein. Who knows why people have been getting sick? Maybe they have been undercooking the product. Perhaps it's a psychosomatic effect on hearing that the food product is based on a fungus before the person consumes it. Anyway, yeast is a fungus and we eat it. The Japanese eat "natto" and that's fermented soya beans. Maybe some Americans are a little conservative and unadventurous in their tastes... Mon Aug 12 16:16:38 -0700 2002 1572666 0 Foodie Penguin 2 1572800 You partially make the point I was going to make: any food can make people sick. Many "natural" foods make people sick. People die from allergies to peanuts, and yet peanuts are "generally recognized as safe." People are allergic to milk, to wheat, to eggs, etc., and yet no one is seriously suggesting they not be sold for human consumption. And of course many thousands of people get sick every year from food poisoning in "natural" food products. My understanding is that Archer Daniels Midland, which counts among its many products soy-based burgers and which is one of the most powerful agribusiness companies in the world, is leading the fight against quorn. For what that's worth. The Center for Science in the Public Interest regularly makes headlines from scare tactics like this -- I don't consider them reputable on the subject of food and nutrition, and the reporting on this story is exceptionally bad: the claims it makes are vague and poorly documented. Read the story carefully -- it's basically a CSPI press release with lots of hysterical quotes and few independently derived facts. Disclaimer: I'm not vegetarian, I've never eaten quorn, and I don't hold stock in it or for that matter in ADM. Tue Aug 13 20:54:05 -0700 2002 1572685 0 Ruth Lafler 3 1572811 Thank you for making the point that i've been arguing among the "icky fake meat is scary i knew it will kill us" crowd. Other interests are at work here, not all of which are primarily concerned with what i, personally, want to eat for dinner. Milk is a product that makes lot more than 10% of the population ill. However, not only is it "generally recognized as safe", but various Councils have made sure that it is still taught as the primary way to ensure an appropriate amount of dietary calcium. I'm not anti-dairy by the way, and i'm very tolerant of lactose. I'm not a vegetarian, either. I don't like needless health scares, though. A simple "it has been reported that some individuals don't tolerate Quorn well. If it makes you feel sick, don't eat it anymore" would suffice. But, of course, on that sort of common sense, we wouldn't have Olestra or nearly as much fast food, i guess. Wed Aug 14 21:34:02 -0700 2002 1572800 0 eristick 1 1572814 Add this stuff to the "tastes like chicken" list. The first time I ate it I was completely bamboozled. But I'm not into eating highly processed foodstuffs, therefore wouldn't buy it. We sell it at the Nat. Foods grocery where I work and it sells well. I've never heard of a Quorn (pronounced CORN)-related illness, and we try to keep up on the latest of everything, from GMO's, to wild-caught versus farmed salmon, to the manufacture and sale of vat-produced, fungus-based foods. Anyway, I think the stuff is perfectly safe, just a little too weird and "Soylent Green" for me. Thu Aug 15 01:05:34 -0700 2002 1572666 0 saudia 1 1572815 I just served Quorn last night, in an herb pasta sauce. Our family, when the kids are home, consists of my vegetarian son, me (ex-vegetarian) and my husband and stepson, previously exclusively meat eaters. Now, however, it's possible for me to make a single dish that we will all enjoy. It tastes enough like meat to keep the carnivores happy, and isn't, which is good for the vegetarian. Into the category of meat-substitute foods that my husband and stepson will happily consume I now put Quorn, Boca Smoked Sausages, Morningstar Farms Breakfast Patties, and Morningstar Farms Pizza Burgers. Someone raised the sensible question of why have a food that tastes like chicken but isn't, and I think a group like our family is the answer. Everyone can eat together happily, without driving the cook crazy. Thu Aug 15 12:59:26 -0700 2002 1572666 0 Abra