New meatlike protein is a fungus among us.

Byline: THE HEALTH FILES by Tim Christie The Register-Guard

GOT QUORN?

No, not corn - Quorn, pronounced KWORN. Tastes like chicken. Made from fungus. It's the latest, strangest entrant in the U.S. fake meat market, and a surprisingly tasty one at that.

Though some question its health food credentials and its marketing - more on that later - Quorn is threatening to give other meat substitutes a run for their money.

The company calls Quorn "a new age protein," and picked the strange one-syllable name - after a town in England, near where the fungus was first found - to make people think of pork and beef.

It's competing in the burgeoning meatless products category against such mainstays as Gardenburgers, Boca Burgers, and various Morningstar Farms products.

Health-conscious consumers have fueled rapid growth in the vegetarian food market, which has seen sales increase from $310 million in 1996 to $1.25 billion in 2001, according to Prepared Foods magazine.

The question is whether consumers will take to fungus burgers and fungus nuggets the way they have to the various soy- and vegetable-based meatless products.

Quorn is made from "mycoprotein," a unique fungus called Fusarium gramineurum.

It's grown in vats, mixed with egg whites and turned into nuggets, cutlets and patties that have the bite, mouth-feel and flavor of chicken and beef.

The mycoprotein is made up of very fine fibers that allow it to replicate the texture of chicken, the company says.

Quorn products have been sold in the United Kingdom for 17 years and were introduced in the United States in January. Several local grocers - Wild Oats, Market of Choice, Sundance Natural Foods and Fred Meyer - carry Quorn products.

Duran Taylor, natural foods buyer for Market of Choice, said Quorn is selling well in his stores.

"It splashed in the market with a lot of publicity and talk," he said. "This pretty much took off right away."

Taylor said when he tried Quorn, "I was like wow. It was really good."

Not everyone is fond of Quorn. A food writer for the New York Times tried Quorn and sniffed, "The cutlet is burdened with the overbearing flavor of garlic powder, while the patty aims for breezy and cool but tastes like powdered salad dressing."

But Quorn has gotten mostly positive reviews, particularly for its bite and texture, which is meatier and less mushy than many of the soy-based meat substitutes.

Eric Skinner, grocery buyer for Sundance Natural Foods in Eugene, said he was amazed at the flavor of Quorn products.

"It's delicious," he said. "I was quite shocked."

On Friday, I nuked a plate of Quorn nuggets for the famously discerning palates in the Register-Guard newsroom.

"It tastes just like chicken," said a vegetarian editor who hasn't eaten chicken in 15 years.

"I'd eat that. It's got better texture than tofu," said one health-minded reporter. But he thought the fat content of the nuggets - 8 grams in three or four nuggets - was too high.

Another staff member said, "I'm an omnivore, and I think they're delicious."

One newsroom foodie said she liked the nuggets, but found the whole idea of Quorn "a little frankenfoodish."

Another reporter, a vegetarian, said the nugget was "much more chickeny than other fake chicken I've tried."

But she blanched at the idea of this fungus being grown in giant vats.

"There's something creepy about it," she said. "I'm not going to be buying it."

The vegetarian editor wasn't bothered by Quorn's origins.

"You don't want to tell people it's grown in a vat - just like you don't want to show people pictures of a slaughterhouse when you sell them a hamburger."

David Wilson, vice president and general manager of Quorn Foods Inc., said U.S. sales have exceeded expectations. Quorn is owned by pharmaceutical giant Astrazenica.

"Things are going very well in the world of Quorn," he said.

About 40 percent of Americans say they're trying to reduce meat in their diets, he said, but only about 15 percent say they eat meat-free foods. Quorn, Wilson said, can expand the meatless food category, rather than eat into the market share of other products.

But Quorn's introduction into the U.S. market has not been without controversy and criticism.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the group that has systematically attacked fatty and fast foods in the American diet, has gone after Quorn for what it says is misleading labeling and failure to investigate whether Quorn causes allergic and adverse reactions in some people.

Quorn packages say the food is made from mycoprotein, "a small unassuming member of the mushroom family."

That description is deceptive, said Michael Jacobson, executive director of CSPI.

Three mycologists - fungi experts - at Penn State University agree.

In a letter to the FDA, they said mycoprotein would be better characterized as a mold. Calling it a mushroom "is analogous to calling a rat a chicken because both are animals."

British regulators also have challenged the use of the mushroom description by Quorn. In June, the company agreed not to use the term mushroom in its promotional materials in Britain until it gets legal advice.

Wilson said he doesn't have a problem calling Quorn a fungus, and said that in the future U.S. packaging will say that's what it is.

CSPI also says some people react poorly to Quorn.

The group has documented a handful of cases where people have thrown up and suffered diarrhea after eating Quorn. Jacobsen said the mycoprotein hasn't been adequately tested.

"My position is we shouldn't be adding new allergens to the food supply," he said. "I don't think we should be adding that kind of material to the food supply when there's no need for it whatsoever. People are not clamoring for a new veggie burger."

Quorn's Wilson said CSPI's criticism about the safety of Quorn is "absolutely unfounded."

"Our safety record is exemplary," he said. "Twenty million consumers (in the UK and Europe) have enjoyed our product. The number of adverse reactions and complaints are incredibly low when compared to other protein sources."

Quorn reported about 90 bad reactions from consumers in both 1999 and 2000, according to CSPI.

The actual number of such reactions is probably much higher because most people who had a bad experience with Quorn probably didn't report it, Jacobson said.

Wilson sees sinister undertones to CSPI's criticism. Noting that CSPI's criticism is identical to that of Portland-based Gardenburger, Wilson said the group has a "competitively motivated agenda."

"They're working in accomplice with Gardenburger to discredit our entry into the market," he said.

CSPI and Gardenburger deny that they're working in concert to hurt Quorn - though they confirm that they've shared information about it.

"I don't think there's a cabal here," Jacobson said.

Gardenburger officials, who have posted a news release, a letter of protest to the FDA and other anti-Quorn material on the company Web site, said they simply want to preserve consumer confidence in meatless products.

"Whenever someone enters the category and does something that might undermine consumer faith in the category we feel that it's incumbent upon us to call attention to the appropriate people, and in that case it was the FDA," said Wendy Preiser, Gardenburger's vice president of marketing.

Taylor, the natural foods buyer for Market of Choice, had another take.

"Any bad publicity has been put out by Gardenburger trying to slow down sales," he said.

Tim Christie covers health and medical issues. Call 338-2572 or e-mail [e-mail].