Should Marlow foods make a vegan version of Quorn? What do you think ?

Question

That is the only thing I miss by being a vegan. Do any other vegan converts miss it too?

firecat they use milk derivatives and egg albumen to bind it!! That is why it is vegetarian but not vegan.

Wow,Greenghost 41% egg albumen is a
LOT!! They could try using apple juice to bind it with and make a pork and apple sauce - style sausage.

Hiya H! - I love the Redwood 'bacon' it's really nice!!

Answer 1

Hi Andie - good to see you here again after becoming a vegan!

I didn't ever get into quorn particularly, so I don't miss it but there are some fantastic alternatives out there, especially for the quorn pieces you'd chuck into a stir fry etc. Try Cauldron Foods Golden Marinated Tofu pieces for starters. Also Taifun have a brilliant range of different flavoured tofus including "Sea Cakes" which are delicious just grilled.

Redwood foods also have a brilliant range of "cheatin" meats like bacon, chicken etc. and all are vegan.

Frys special vegetarian range is all vegan as well, their burgers, sausages, snitzels etc. are all tasty and I would say far better than the Quorn equivalent.

If you want any more details just mail me and I'll help you out. I know Redwood foods has its own website but don't know the URL and you can order direct from them.

Take care, keep up the good work!

H.

Answer 2

Amen. If these people were a bit more creative, surely they could accomplish it?

Also, Morning Star Farms. They have buffalo chicken wings, mini corn dogs, sausages and bacon, but I can't eat them because they have eggs. It isn't fair because I remember them (the fake versions) tasting so good. I know a lot of vegetarians do not want that stuff, but I just don't want to eat dead animals. I do want good veggie sausage patties.

Couldn't they use some corn starch instead of eggs? If the vegan process was more expensive, I would pay it.

:)

EDIT-
H, do you know if there is any way to get Redwood food in the US?

Answer 3

Hi Andie! Good to see you here!!!! On to the matter at hand...

Quorn has a *big* problem with making vegan versions of their mycoprotein. I've seen an analysis of their naked cutlets and it wasn't encouraging. They are correct about the listed percentage of mycoprotein but what they *don't* list is that 40-41% of their product is egg white! That is by far the highest amount of egg I've ever seen or heard of in any analog. As a comparison the Morningstar chik pattie (with the breading removed) has less than 10% egg white. Why'd they use so much egg? It appears that their protein has almost no natural binding ability and/or moisture holding capacity(stickiness). When turning soy or wheat into an analog there is a natural stickiness to these proteins that naturally helps bind the analog together thus only small amounts of egg are used and primarily as a moist binder to improve mouthfeel and not to actually hold things together. That's why there are vegan versions of some products (like Boca and Morningstar making 'regular' and vegan versions of their burgers). An additional clue to this being the reason they use so much egg is that they've been trying to market their protein powder as a no-sodium, high-protein salt substitute powder.

That bad news being delivered; yes it would be nice if they'd make vegan versions of their wares! Maybe if you and all the other UK (and US) vegans send them enough nasty email demanding a vegan version they'll put more effort into getting the egg out of their products. But keep in mind that with Morningstar it wasn't until Kellogg's bought them out that vegan products appeared. It took a *major* campaign to get Kellogg's to do the R&D (i.e. spend money) needed to develop vegan products. That may be the silver lining needed since Marlow's parent AstraZeneca has been trying to get someone else to buy the company (It may have already been done).

Feel free to 'beat up' G for pointing the question out to me.

Edit:

I would LOVE to get my hands on some of their mycoprotein *before* they process it!!!! This nosy sob wants to know just exactly what the stuff really is like before they fiddle with it!

Edit:

I gave you a Redwoods link. I don't know why but Redwoods is *not* legal in the US (I would imagine they have/had the same problem I'm having with regulations!). Look them up and you *may* have found an alternate solution to the Quorn problem. You wouldn't happen to know of anyone willing to risk smuggling some into the US do you? That would (of course) mean they'd risk running afoul of 'our' Homeland Security nazis! From experience not a pleasant prospect..

Up above I tried to keep the 'science' simple but I don't think I was clear enough and an important point got missed. I'm not sure the egg is being used primarily as a binder. I know they claim their mycoprotein has meatlike texture on it's own but it really does seem that the egg is being as much more than a simple binder and is instead the 'core' of their product. Look closely at quorn (magnification helps) and you'll see 'strings' covered in clumps of particles. I'm fairly sure the strings are the egg protein (albumen) and the particles are their protein. If I'm correct with this analysis of Quorn it means they would have to replace the 'heart' of their protein matrix! [Warning heavy science content ahead] It's possible that they could use glycoproteins as a substitute for the serpin protein of egg. Maybe Hordein or Gliadin, the problem with this approach is that those vegetable proteins (when purified) aren't well tolerated by the body (those are the 'villans' in Celiac disease). Veggie serpin proteins aren't an option since they tend to be *highly* reactive in the body (most are used as medicines). The only other veggie based substances I can think of that might work would be in the latex family and those aren't very edible.

Answer 4

Quorn is one of the reasons I am not vegan. I love the stuff! If they did make it vegan, I would certainly use it though!

Answer 5

It would be really good if quorn was vegan as it is s versatile ad there are so many different items made with it.

Answer 6

Yes i miss it i just wish someone would make some for us vegans

Answer 7

yes! i'm not vegan but it would annoy me if i was. i'm sure they could come up with an alternative. Maybe if enough of you write t o them.

Answer 8

That would be extremely clever.

Just how would they make a non-animal product made from fungus, suitable for a Vegan?

Let me see, a Vegetarian does eat meat (broadly speaking), a Vegan has nothing that is derived from an animal.
Fungus is basically mushrooms.

Are there herds of Mushrooms roaming the African plains?
Schools of Mushrooms in the Oceans?
My local zoo doesn't have any so maybe I should try to trap one for them!


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