Product Study A2 Food Technology

Analysis of the Situation

There are currently 4million vegetarians in the UK, and this figure is increasing at a rate of 5,000 each week. The fact that the number of vegetarians in the UK has doubled in the past ten years, proves vegetarianism to be constantly gaining popularity. The UK retail market for vegetarian foods is increasing by eight per cent per year, reflecting the constant demands for meat alternatives.

Quorn products are amongst the most popular vegetarian foods in the UK, which is indicated through the vast amount of people choosing Quorn products as regular mealtime alternatives to meat based meals.

I have chosen Quorn chicken style nuggets as my product study, as it is a well-established meat alternative, and one of Qourn’s best selling products. Quorn as a company cater for many different needs of customers from social groups including religion and faith, culture, low fat diets, and of course, vegetarians themselves.

History of Micoprotein and Quorn Products

In the 1960’s nutritionists and health experts were concerned that the predicted growth

in population would mean that by the 1980’s there would be a global protein shortage.

Nutritionists and food scientists started a search to find new foods, which would help

to meet the predicted increase in demand.

The discovery of an organism occurring naturally in the soil ultimately gave Marlow

Foods the opportunity to develop such a new food; mycoprotein.

Research and product development work progressed. It wasn’t until the early 1980’s that mycoprotein could be grown on a commercial scale and soon after that was the officially approved for food use by the UK’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), now Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The new range of healthy Quorn foods was launched based on mycoprotein.

A slowing in world population growth and improved food production techniques meant that the expected world protein shortage did not materialize. By this time, Marlow Foods’ ability to manufacture the Quorn product range, and its