My Conversation with the CEO of Quorn
There are many startups, including one that I cofounded, working to scale mycelium fermentation to a point where it can start making a dent in demand for animal meat. One company, though, has been doing this successfully for decades: Quorn Foods.
While most animal-free meat is made from soy, pea, or wheat, Quorn dominates the portion of the market made from mycelium, controlling more than 99% of the mycoprotein-based alt-meat sector. Partnered with companies like KFC, Quorn is the number one alt-meat brand in the EU, even though it’s still a smaller part of the US market. That may be changing, though.
In this conversation, I had a great time talking with Quorn’s CEO Marco Bertacca about where the company’s been and where it’s going, including its plans in the US. He reveals which fungi protein startup Quorn recently invested in, whether Quorn intends to build its own fermentation facility in the US, when the company intends to remove all egg whites from its products, and why he thinks Quorn seems better suited as a chicken alternative than beef. Interestingly, he also claims that Quorn is already competing on cost with some chicken products today.
I was impressed by Marco’s humility in this interview, including when he’s talking about where he thinks Quorn has come up short in some of its expansion plans. Interestingly, he and I also chat about why he felt it was important for him, when starting as CEO four years ago, to work for weeks undercover as a factory worker in a Quorn plant before getting behind a computer.
The job, Marco claims, has been very gratifying for him, noting that he’s married to someone who never eats meat, and he’s become someone who eats meat only once per month. Marco even notes that his children are more proud of him today than ever before because of his work to create a more sustainable food system.
I think you’ll appreciate that sentiment even more after listening to this conversation with the man at the helm of the fungi fermentation revolution — enjoy!
