The OG of Mycelium Fermentation: The Quorn Story

There are several dozen startups, including one that I cofounded, laboring 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 for decades: Quorn Foods.

While most alt-meat is made from pea, soy, 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 soon, though.

In this conversation, we hear from 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 assets 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!

Discussed in this episode

• Paul's new talk on the TED website about fungi fermentation.

• Paul's favorite Quorn products are the Spicy Chiqin Patties and Fish Sticks.

• The history of Quorn.

• Quorn was acquired in 2015 for $831 million by Monde Nissin.

• Monde Nissin's 2021 billion-dollar IPO for Quorn.

• Quorn's 2021 announcement that it would invest $335 million in the US market.

• Marco's first weeks on the CEO job were spent as a factory worker.

• The Fungi Protein Association, of which Quorn is a founding member

• Our recent episode with Prime Roots CEO Kimberlie Le.

More about Marco Bertacca

Marco Bertacca joined Quorn Foods as CEO in January 2020, bringing over 25 years of global food and drink experience to the company.

Prior to moving to the UK to undertake the role, Marco was based in the Philippines where he was the Managing Director of Alaska Milk Corporation, a Friesland Campina Company, for over three years. He first moved to South East Asia in 2013, taking the role of Business Development Director in Singapore for Friesland Campina. He went on to hold a number of MD roles across Singapore and Thailand. Before joining Friesland Campina Marco was President of Europe at CSM Bakery Products, and began his career working for Unilever for 10 years, leading the company's supply chain operations.

Marco joined Quorn Foods with the ultimate goal of encouraging more sustainable diets, for the health of both people and planet. Under his leadership, the business announced it will be the first major food brand to roll out carbon labelling on its products, and has committed to achieving Net Positive status by 2030, by which time he has set the ambition to serve 8 billion servings of Quorn a year, the equivalent of one serving for every person on the planet.