An Australian company that began turning mushrooms into meat alternative products less than three months ago says demand is already incredibly strong.

Fable Food Company CEO Michael Fox explains that mushrooms are used as the base for the plant-based protein products, which he says try to be as close to the real thing as possible.

"Our first product is designed to replicate the taste and texture of slow-cooked meats like pulled pork or braised beef," he said. "However, it is made from 65 per cent shiitake mushrooms, and other all-natural, minimally processed plant-based ingredients. It's not just aimed at the vegetarian or vegan consumer. Fable is made for people who still love the taste and texture of meat, but want to reduce their animal meat consumption. There are a lot of these consumers. Survey data suggests that 30 per cent of Australians fit into the category of wanting to reduce meat consumption."

The company is sourcing from multiple farms, with the slower growing shiitake, shredded and used to give the stringy texture of the pulled meat products.

"One of the challenging things from a supply chain perspective is that there are not many shiitake mushrooms grown in Australia," Mr Fox said. "Australia grows mostly white button mushrooms, with most of the shiitake mushrooms grown in Asia. So, at the moment we are sourcing from there, but we would really like to use Australian mushrooms. We are also developing meat alternatives using Agaricus mushrooms, so we are just beginning to talk to those growers in Australia for those products."

The product was launched in conjunction with British chef Heston Blumenthal late 2019, and is now on the menu at 50 restaurants across Australia, and interest is continuing to spread.

"A lot of those restaurants have the Fable brand on the menu, so we have got exposure in Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne," Mr Fox said. "We have also launched with Marley Spoon, and the goal is to continue rolling out in restaurants, and focus on foodservice for the time being. Then we look at retail mid-year. We are also looking at international markets, including Singapore through a distribution partner in the foodservice industry. We've also met with a couple of companies in London. But we want to really focus in on Australia for the next six months at least."

For more information

Michael Fox

Fable Food Co

food@fablefood.co
 

Source - www.fablefood.co   - 24^th March 2020