Background... Lifelong veggie, regularly ate soya mince as a meat alternative during younger days, but more and more over the years have been eating and enjoying quorn.
I never really questioned its origins, after all, Mo Farah tells us its good! And it's low fat, far smaller carbon footprint and so on.. And I'm sure they used to say something on the packet about mushrooms from Marlow (what could be more wholesome?!)
So to my mind, it was a mushroom based product. Only it isn't......
The penny dropped whilst at a friends house. She had made a chicken curry for the meat-eaters, and had very kindly made a quorn version for me. Her dh, who is very much a 'meat and two veg' type of bloke positivlely balked when I suggested he try the quorn version. His reaction: "You couldn't pay me to eat that stuff... I was at ICI when they developed it".
Developed At ICI??!! What about the lovely mushrooms from Marlow?? A quick google search has confirmed what he said. It WAS developed by ICI, and Quorn have actually been in trouble here with advertising standards(and in the US) for suggesting it is mushroom based.
It is, of course 'mycro-protein' and a type of fungus or bacteria. This is I suppose, a natural product, but what concerns me is the process they use to texture it, which they seem rather reluctant to divulge, and does not need to be listed under ingredients. I suppose this could be an understandable desire to protect their method of preparation, but something about this is really starting to bother me.
Have I just been spectacularly naive? (I'm pre-empting a chorus of 'Of course it's ghastly artificial shite!!!' here..)
I would very much like to be reassured as to its safety, particularly as my dc eat it too. Also any alternative to the meat industry has to be a good thing..
I would love to hear from anyone with a food science background.
Thanks in advance for any input.