FRIENDLY MEAT SUBSTITUTE OR DASTARDY FUNGUS AMONG US?!?

Awwww, man! Why’d they have to go and put liquid mold in my curiously-chicken-like-meat-substitute-patties? It’s not as if I’m a particularly gluttonous consumer of all things protein-rich who needs a grody, hard-to-swallow lesson in moderation. On a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being hugely enthusiastic about eating animal flesh), I believe that I register at a 2.5.

Let’s put it this way. I love animals, I have great compassion for their livelihood, and though on occasion I will eat a modest-sized pork tamale here or green chile chicken tortilla casserole there, I (perhaps subconsciously) gravitate toward veggie protein substitutes on a regular basis out of choice.

Go ahead -- take a peek in my cabinets and in my freezer. It is there that you will find a bumper crop of assorted beans, lentils, split peas, oatmeal, protein bars, and deeelish veggie burgers. These food staples, coupled with lots of fresh vegetables and heartily seasoned with my personal trinity of garlic, red pepper flakes and ground cayenne, taste positively mmm-mmm-good and I rarely (if ever) feel deprived.

My idea of a ‘meaty treat’ is chowing down on frozen round discs of vegetabley nutrition, especially those manufactured by Morningstar Farms, Gardenburger, Dr. Praeger’s California Veggie Burgers and occasionally out of desperation, BOCA Burgers. No, I’m not a staunch vegetarian, however I enjoy the flavor/ingredients/nutritional value that these protein substitutes offer…and it is nice to know that my eating habits aren’t contributing to the flourishing factory farming industry, either.

In the course of my perpetual frozen food aisle explorations, I encountered a product that many veggie proponents know intimately as “Quorn” and thought that it was worth a shot, after all…I lovvvvvve trying new things. Little did I know that this product that I consumed on multiple occasions is hatched in large industrial vats and borne of a soil mold more technically referred to as fusarium venenatum strain PTA-2684.

What in holy-hell is THAT and why the *$&#! are they putting it into my supposed mushroom protein burger?!?! Inquiring minds (well, ME) wanted to know, so I went straight to the natural source for all rock-solid-facts in the universe – Wikipedia. What, pray tell, did I find?

“The mold is grown in continually oxygenated water in large, otherwise sterile fermentation tanks. During the growth phase glucose is added as a food for the fungus, as are various vitamins and minerals (to improve the food value of the resulting product). The resulting mycoprotein is then extracted and heat-treated to remove excess levels of RNA. The product is then dried and mixed with chicken egg albumen, which acts as a binder. It is then textured, giving it some of the grained character of meat, and pressed either into a mince (resembling ground beef), forms resembling chicken breasts, meatballs, turkey roasts, or into chunks (resembling diced chicken breast).”

So, why am I being a whiny little sissy? People have eaten mushrooms (which spring forth from decaying organic matter) and cheese (acidified milk with bacterial molds and cultures) and bread (made with unicellular fungi known more commonly as ‘yeast’) and even straight-up yogurt for God’s sake (which is the natural bacterial fermentation of milk) throughout the ages.

How can a little soil mold be so terribly vomit-inducing in the grand scheme of edible things? Actually, that’s precisely what legions of consumers have accused Quorn of doing to them. The soil mold (a known allergen identified by the USDA) has been notorious for causing countless outbreaks of hives, nausea, diarrhea, labored breathing, and other assorted unpleasant allergic reactions.

I’ve been one of the lucky few who have not suffered adverse reactions as of yet, but the Center For Science in the Public Interest says that some consumers experience the wrath of Quorn’s moldy ways only after consuming the product multiple times. Uh-oh……. Count me out!! The next time I find a cool new meat substitute at my local health food store, I’m going to scribble the name down and conduct a full Google work-up at home prior to ingesting it. I, for one, am guilty of trusting manufacturers just a little too much and no matter what they’d like us to think, soil mold by any other name is still, well, you get the point. Fungus among us, indeed! I’m swearing off of that stuff for good!

ATTENTION GREENWALIANS:

1. Have you ever purchased and eaten Quorn? If so, did you experience anything (positive or negative) that you’d like to share with the community?

 2. Does this blog post make you want to bail on Quorn forever more, or are you a daredevil rarely swayed by public health concerns?

3. Got any thoughts whatsoever that you’d like to share? Then let your fingers do the walking (on your keyboard, that is)…..

http://agricultureguide.org/friendly-meat-substitute-or-dastardy-fungus-among-us/