Mushroom Based Meat Alternatives

With Veganism on the up and up, we’ve all heard of plant-based meat alternatives, but have you heard of fungi-based meat alternatives? Now you have. Scientists and entrepreneurs are now coming up with meat alternatives made out of mushrooms!

Evocative, a biotech company from New York, is designing and creating a range of products from the root structures of mushrooms. They can even create Styrofoam from it. Their vegan meat, made from mycelium, the root structure of a mushroom, tastes just like real bacon when fried. It contains the same protein properties that pork bacon provides, without heart problems and cholesterol.

When asked, most people say they don’t want to leave meat because of its feel and texture and not really because of nutrients. So now, mycologists aim to create similar feels and textures in the mushroom-based meat alternatives.

Some lab scientists are trying to use the fruit part of the mushroom then using the root to use the fungi in its entirety.

These alternatives are much faster to produce as compared to their plant-based counterparts. Mushrooms are also easier to acquire because not only can they be grown, but edible mushrooms also grow in the wild. These also have higher levels of antioxidants.

In all this innovation, let us not forget that mushroom steaks have existed for so long, and we have loved them since the old.

One question that this fungi-based alternative poses is, what about allergies? Servers in restaurants always ask if you want mushrooms or not. That is because a lot of people are allergic to mushrooms. Will this allergy transfer to the meat alternative? Or can people with mushroom allergies also consume these alternatives?

While this is still a growing field, there is no doubt that we need to work towards more sustainable and animal-friendly forms of food, and mushrooms provide exactly that. So let us at least try before we push it under the rug.