the.com/mycoprotein
Fungus grown in vats, pretending to be chicken, succeeding alarmingly well.
means A meat-substitute protein made from the biomass of fermented fungus (usually a Fusarium mold), spun into fibrous textures that mimic meat.
from Coined from Greek 'mykes' (fungus, the same root that gives us 'mycology') plus 'protein' — itself from Greek 'proteios,' meaning 'primary' or 'of first importance,' a 19th-century chemist's flattering name for the molecule he thought was life's essential building block. The compound word is modern and functional, built in the 20th century when food scientists needed a clean label for fungal biomass grown in fermentation vats — no folklore required, just two Greek borrowings stitched together for a marketing-friendly ingredient list.
- actual source
- Fusarium venenatum, a soil fungus, not meat
- invented when
- 1960s Britain, as a hedge against food shortages
- fermented like
- beer, but harvested for protein instead of alcohol
- footprint
- far lower land and carbon cost than beef