Source: LOHAS Weekly Newsletter
Published: Tuesday, December 30, 2003

CSPI says mycoprotein-based food product unsafe.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is once again lobbying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and grocery chains in the U.S. to ban Quorn, a mushroom-based meat substitute. CSPI contends that the product is behind at least 550 cases of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in the U.S. and U.K. Eleven of the people who experienced adverse reactions have joined with Washington-based CSPI-which derives the bulk of its funding from subscriptions to Nutrition Action Healthletter - to ask groceries to stop carrying the product.

The meat substitute, a product of U.K.'s Marlow Foods, has been sold in the U.S. since Jan. 2002; it's been available in England since 1985. Britain's Food Standards Agency's has ruled that the mycoprotein-based food product Quorn is safe.