Quorn (food product)

Quorn

Type	Private
Industry	Food
Founded	1985
Founder	Marlow Foods Ltd (JV between RHM & ICI)
Headquarters	Stokesley, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Area served	Global
Owner	Monde Nissin Corporation (2015–present)
Website	quorn.co.uk

Quorn is a meat substitute product available in the UK, Ireland, US, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Italy, France, Finland and other countries. Launched in 1985 by Marlow Foods (a joint venture between RHM and ICI) and now owned by Monde Nissin Corporation, Quorn is intended to replicate the taste and texture of meat. All Quorn foods contain mycoprotein as an ingredient, which is derived from the Fusarium venenatum fungus and is grown by fermentation using a process that its manufacturer has described as similar to the production of beer or yogurt. It is sold (primarily in Europe, but also in other parts of the world) as an alternative to meat. Quorn is sold as both a cooking ingredient and as the meat substitute used in a range of prepackaged meals.

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.

Microbial biomass is produced commercially as single-cell protein (SCP) for human food or animal feed and as viable yeast cells for the baking industry. The industrial production of bakers' yeast started in the early 1900s and yeast biomass was used as human food in Germany during World War I. The development of large-scale processes for the production of microbial biomass as a source of commercial protein began in earnest in the late 1960s. Several of the processes investigated did not come to fruition owing to political and economic problems but the establishment of the ICI Pruteen process for the production of bacterial SCP for animal feed was a milestone in the development of the fermentation industry. This process used continuous culture on a large scale (1500 m³). The economics of the production of SCP as animal feed were marginal, which eventually led to the discontinuation of the Pruteen process. The technical expertise gained from the Pruteen process assisted ICI in collaborating with Rank Hovis McDougall on a process for the production of fungal biomass for human food. A continuous fermentation process for the production of Fusarium venenatum biomass (marketed as Quorn) was developed using a 40-m³ air-lift fermenter.