Fungus ‘meat’? Yes, it could be a less expensive, environmentally sustainable —and tasty— chicken substitute

Chinese scientists have genetically tweaked a fungus to make protein-rich “meat”, which they say can be a low-cost, environmentally friendly alternative to chicken.

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While lab-grown proteins from yeast and fungi have emerged as potential alternatives to meat, processing them into consumer-friendly products has been a challenge.

Of the current options, the protein from the fungus Fusarium venenatum stands out due to its natural texture and flavour, closely resembling those of poultry meat.

Although this fungus “meat” has been approved for food use in several countries like the US, UK and China, making even small amounts of it requires enormous resources, scientists say.

The scientists simply removed genes from the fungal DNA associated with two of its enzymes.

One of the changes made the fungal cell wall thinner and allowed more protein to be packed inside its cell.

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The other helped fine-tune the fungal metabolism so that it needed less nutrient input to produce protein.

“Gene-edited foods like this can meet growing food demands without the environmental costs of conventional farming,” [Dr Xiao Liu, study author] said.

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