Mycelium > Meat — Isabella Iglesias-Musachio on Bosque Foods’ Story
Isabella Iglesias-Musachio, who calls herself a “citizen scientist,” is passionate about improving the world through innovations in meat-free protein. As the founder and CEO of Bosque Foods, she leads a team focused on creating nutritionally rich, tasty, fungi-based cutlets and fillets. Bosque Foods, which as of September 2022 had raised $3 million in venture capital, is using solid-state fermentation techniques to produce innovative whole-cut products. It’s a process that differs from the steel-vessel fermentation used by some other mycelium-based meat companies.
Additionally, Bosque Foods isn’t trying to replicate the meat-eating experience that some other alternative food companies do. Their products are recognizably non-meat, center-of-the-plate items analogous to tempeh or tofu: You’d want them to star in your dinnertime entree, but they’re not trying to mimic chicken or steak.
In September, Iglesias-Musachio spoke with me on the Business for Good Podcast directly from her lab, offering a glimpse into the empire she’s trying to build.
Mighty mycelium
One big advantage of working with fungi is that they grow so quickly. Bosque Foods bases its business on mycelium, the root-like structure of fungi. But because mycelium is multicellular and fast-growing, it can develop into complex, large-structure growths .
As is the case with the single-celled yeasts, mycelium absorbs small nutritional molecules from sugar or or even plant waste products. It does this by means of enzymes that break down sugar, wood, and plant structures into easily digestible pieces. The growing mycelium becomes a tightly packed fibrous network that branches over its growth environment like a multi-highway transit system.
Bosque Foods can grow the mycelium it uses in only a few days. By contrast, it typically takes many weeks or even years to raise animals for food.
Iglesias-Musachio points out that this process results in protein-rich foods with high nutritional value that can be rapidly produced, and that production can be easily scaled.
Making Bosque Foods’ mycelium-fermentation products omits much of the intense use of energy and resources involved in raising animals for food. That makes sustainability one of Iglesias-Musachio’s company’s main selling points. She’s built her brand on creating “future-proof solutions” for feeding the world’s people. If she can scale her process, it’d be a very big win for a planet with a burgeoning human population and dwindling resources.
Substrate for the people
The solid-state fermentation technique at Bosque uses solid substrate — the biomass substance on which a fermented product is grown. It can basically be described as food for growing fungi. The particular type of substrate that Bosque chooses for its process is upcycled residue from agricultural food producers. This, as Iglesias-Musachio explained, makes the manufacturing process even more “circular,” and reduces its environmental footprint even more.
Centering sustainability through fungi
Iglesias-Musachio concentrated on sustainable agriculture as a student. Her education taught her about the inhumane practices that permeate the animal-based factory farming system. Internalizing the detrimental effects of these practices on the environment, she decided to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle. She also began to view mushrooms as central to the quest to create sustainable, meat-substitute meals that would be producible at scaleé — as well as delicious.
Although she didn’t pursue an academic degree in mycology, her intense study of the fungi kingdom brought her the realization of how diverse and versatile its species are. She learned how yeasts and molds are at the center of much of today’s manufacturing of a variety of food, as well as wine, beer, and more. Thus began her long fascination with the process of fermentation.
Iglesias-Musachio worked in previous positions as general manager and director of operations at TechShop, which hosts makerspaces in the United States and France. She moved on to the agriculture start-up Infarm, based in Berlin, Germany, helping them expand their international presence.
When it came time to turn her “hobby” into a means of starting her own company, Iglesias-Musachio wanted it to hone in on providing solutions to climate change by leveraging the exceptional properties of fermented foods. After several attempts at starting fermentation-based companies, she established Bosque Foods in Berlin in 2020.
A mission to move forward
One of the issues facing Bosque Foods now is how to lock in a consistent supply chain of that all-important substrate when numerous other companies are also trying their hand at upcycling agricultural side streams. In order to truly serve as a competitive provider at scale, any such company needs to crack the problem of substrate supply.
Iglesias-Musachio is sanguine about Bosque’s ability to work with a diverse range of side-stream substrates, obtained through a developing network of partners. Success here will allow Bosque to continue using what amounts to agricultural residue, rather than purchasing other types of substrate at market value.
Iglesias-Musachio’s 12-person team, largely composed of biotechnology experts, is continuing to refine their fermentation techniques. And, while they’re not cleared to enter their chosen consumer markets yet, Bosque’s marketing team is ramping up to plan sales and strategies, while keeping the brand relatable for a wide range of consumers.
It’s not going to be alternative chicken nuggets, because it doesn’t want to be. But what Bosque plans to put on our plates may be just as delicious. Not to mention yet another tool in using business for the good of the planet.
You can hear Isabella telling Bosque’s story on the podcast here!
