Future of nutrition: Meati Foods fast tracks product development with nutrient-dense mycelium

17 Jan 2024 --- Researchers are underlining the nutrition and sustainability qualities of mycelium, or mushroom root, and highlighting its potential to transform the food industry. In this second of a two-part interview, we discuss the alternative protein’s R&D and product development potential with Harold H. Schmitz, chair of the scientific board for Meati Foods. 

Mycelium — the network of fungal threads responsible for mushroom production — is the core ingredient for Meati Foods’ alternative protein products. Fermenting the mushroom root can create products that mimic the texture of meat. 

Last week, Schmitz detailed the outcomes of a scientific review of mycelium’s potential to address nutrition security as a nutritious, desirable, scalable, affordable and environmentally sustainable product. It offers a complete protein source, a high fiber content and a range of micronutrients. 

Looking at R&D opportunities for mycelium, Schmitz tells Nutrition Insight that its production requires much lower inputs than traditional animal- or plant-based products while creating high outputs of a nutrient-dense source of macro- and micronutrients.

“This is part of the interest with mycelium. In the plant-based world, for example, you can modify plants through traditional breeding or genetic modification, and we’re getting pretty good at accelerated traditional breeding.” 

“But when you start modifying plants, the ability to enhance healthy bioactives in plants takes a long time because of their growth cycles,” he cautions. “We can move much faster to enhance mycelium’s nutritional properties.”

Growing conditions for R&D
Mycelium has a short growth cycle, meaning that if scientists want to enhance an identified bioactive, this can happen much faster. According to the review, a production cycle for the mushroom root’s protein takes on average two to six days, while other plant-based proteins take much longer, such as 45–65 days for soybean, 100 days for chickpea or three years for a first almond crop after planting. 

The review also includes examples of several animal-based protein production cycles, including chicken (seven weeks to three months), pork (six months) and beef cattle (on average 1.8 years). 

“When we think about feeding plants or animals to change nutrient composition for the better, it takes so long, whereas producing massive amounts of mycelium can happen very fast,” adds Schmitz. 

Schmitz notes that more research is needed on identified molecules to determine how to enhance them in mycelium production.He further explains that changing mycelium’s production, such as feeding nutrients or adapting its growing conditions, alters the composition of the end product. “This is the R&D that needs to happen. The good news is that if it happens, there’s a path to scaling it more quickly than products in the plant and animal kingdom.” 

“For example, if you change the lighting during the manufacturing of mycelium, you can enhance vitamin D production. As there’s a big gap in vitamin D in many populations in the world, we could, at scale, address this major public health gap by simply changing the lighting conditions.” 

Product development options
The review, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, concludes that mycelium represents a “significant opportunity to help usher in a new era of product development produced at a scale that is considered healthy yet with fewer ingredients and has a sensory profile that is complex with depth.”

The researchers analyzed mycelium’s potential for the future, based on data analytics, literature research and internal compositional analyses by Meati Foods. 

“We found small molecules that could be useful for healthy cell development, in other words, preventing cancer development,” underscores Schmitz. “In addition to fiber being useful for cardiovascular health, some other small molecules have potential healthy effects on the vascular system.” 

“We need to do more research to characterize them — we might need to create mycelium production systems that enhance the production of those molecules to be available in a large enough amount to matter.” 

Schmitz emphasizes a knowledge gap in the chemistry of many food products, which must be filled to develop products further. 

“The first thing that Meati Foods needs to do, and is doing, is beginning to understand the molecular chemistry of its product, including all the different types of proteins and fibers. We know that beta-glucan is in there, but what are some of the other fibers and the various small molecules?” 

Meati Foods and its mycelium-based protein alternatives can help create a more sustainable food sector (Image credit: Meati Foods).“Then we need to do human subjects work from a clinical perspective,” he adds. “That is crucial because food can interact differently with our human digestive physiology — we need to understand more about how humans digest mycelium to better design products to provide better health benefits.”

Additionally, the review suggests that mycelium’s potential for health benefits needs to be confirmed with data from different species and lifespans. 

Food revolution 
The review concludes that mycelium has gained interest as technology advances demonstrate its ability to provide scalable biomass for food production, delivering good flavor and quality protein, fiber and essential micronutrients needed to improve public health. 

Schmitz emphasizes that mycelium production can be “revolutionary for the global food sector,” which is urgently needed in light of recent crises, such as the effects of climate change and growing food insecurity. 

At the same time, he warns that the global food sector is a legacy sector. “It’s based on successful business practices of the last 50 years. We know those practices are not what they should be for human health and nutrition and environmental sustainability.” 

To address the urgent need for change, Schmitz calls for “paradigm shifts and food production revolutions” to transform the food sector. He believes Meati Foods and its mycelium-based protein alternatives can support such a transformation, describing the company’s efforts as the “future of food.” 

Other companies also recognize the potential of mycelium-based protein alternatives, also known as mycoproteins. Earlier this week, Biotech start-up Enifer announced the construction of a large-scale mycoprotein factory, envisioning dry mycoprotein powder as a “universal protein ingredient in many food products.” 

By Jolanda van Hal