Fusarium venenatum
Encyclopedia
Fusarium venenatum is a microfungus
Microfungi
Microfungi are fungi, eukaryotic organisms such as molds, mildews and rusts, which exhibit tube tip-growth and have cell walls composed of chitin, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine. The microfungi are an artificial, paraphyletic group, distinguished from macrofungi only by the absence of a large,...

 of the genus Fusarium
Fusarium
Fusarium is a large genus of filamentous fungi widely distributed in soil and in association with plants. Most species are harmless saprobes, and are relatively abundant members of the soil microbial community. Some species produce mycotoxins in cereal crops that can affect human and animal health...

 that has a high protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 content. One of its strains is used commercially for the production of the single cell protein
Single cell protein
Single-cell protein typically refers to sources of mixed protein extracted from pure or mixed cultures of algae, yeasts, fungi or bacteria used as a substitute for protein-rich foods, in human and animal feeds....

 mycoprotein
Mycoprotein
Mycoprotein is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as: "the albuminoid which is the principal constituent of the protoplasm of the cell." "Myco" is from the Greek word for "fungus"....

.

Fusarium venenatum was discovered growing in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, in 1967 by ICI
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...

 as part of the effort during the 1960s to find alternative sources of food to fill the protein gap
Food security
Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past...

 caused by the growing world population
World population
The world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth. As of today, it is estimated to be  billion by the United States Census Bureau...

. It was was originally misidentified as Fusarium graminearum.

The strain Fusarium venenatum A3/5 (IMI 145425, ATCC PTA-2684) was developed commercially by an ICI and Rank Hovis McDougall joint venture to derive a mycoprotein
Mycoprotein
Mycoprotein is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as: "the albuminoid which is the principal constituent of the protoplasm of the cell." "Myco" is from the Greek word for "fungus"....

 used as a food. Because the hyphae
Hypha
A hypha is a long, branching filamentous structure of a fungus, and also of unrelated Actinobacteria. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium; yeasts are unicellular fungi that do not grow as hyphae.-Structure:A hypha consists of one or...

 of the fungus are similar in length and width to animal muscle fibres the mycoprotein is used as an alternative to meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

 and is marketed to vegetarians as Quorn
Quorn
Quorn is the leading brand of mycoprotein food product in the UK and Ireland. The mycoprotein used to produce Quorn is extracted from a fungus, Fusarium venenatum, which is grown in large vats....

. It is also suitable as a substitute for fat in dairy products and a substitute for cereal in breakfast cereals and snacks.

Mycoprotein is produced by anaerobic respiration
Anaerobic respiration
Anaerobic respiration is a form of respiration using electron acceptors other than oxygen. Although oxygen is not used as the final electron acceptor, the process still uses a respiratory electron transport chain; it is respiration without oxygen...

 or fermentation
Fermentation (biochemistry)
Fermentation is the process of extracting energy from the oxidation of organic compounds, such as carbohydrates, using an endogenous electron acceptor, which is usually an organic compound. In contrast, respiration is where electrons are donated to an exogenous electron acceptor, such as oxygen,...

. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was a United Kingdom government department created by the Board of Agriculture Act 1889 and at that time called the Board of Agriculture, and then from 1903 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and from 1919 the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries...

 approved mycoprotein for sale as a food in 1985.

See also

  • United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
    Food and Agriculture Organization
    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and...

  • History of biotechnology
    History of Biotechnology
    Biotechnology is the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of materials by biological agents to provide goods and services. From its inception, biotechnology has maintained a close relationship with society...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK