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Ask an American vegetarian about Quorn, and the most likely answer you'll get is: "What's Quorn?" Ask a British vegetarian, and you'll probably get a more enthusiastic response because Quorn (pronounced "kworn") has long been the most popular meat substitute in Britain. Then ask Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of Washington's Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), and you'll hear that Quorn, introduced in America in January 2002, is a public menace that literally makes people sick to their stomachs.

CSPI--best known for its campaign against Olestra, the controversial fat substitute--has formally appealed to the Food and Drug Administration to remove Quorn from American stores and urged grocers not to sell it. CSPI claims its actions are based on science. But VT has reviewed the evidence for this assertion and found little foundation for it.

The history of Quorn dates to the 1960s, when many social scientists feared that the rising population would soon cause a world food shortage. Researchers began looking for new sources of protein and found a promising possibility in a fungus called Fusarium venenatum. By fermenting this fungus with a few familiar ingredients--water, glucose syrup and various nutrients--it could be rendered into "mycoprotein," a food that is 50 percent protein, 25 percent fiber and cholesterol-free.

Over the next decade, mycoprotein was subjected to more than 100 scientific studies. For a year, it was fed to beagles, who thrived on it. Generations of rats raised on it proved to be just as healthy as rats could be. In 1985, after a series of trials on people, mycoprotein was declared safe in Britain, and the Marlow Foods company introduced Quorn in faux beef and chicken flavors. Since then, 15 million Europeans have purchased it with no significant public health complaints. But when it hit US shelves at the beginning of 2002, CSPI raised alarms.

Why? Marlow is partly to blame. The company feared that many customers might be reluctant to buy a product made from a fungus. Most people eat fungus-based foods every day: Yeast is a fungus, as are mushrooms. Still, the word has an unappetizing ring. So Marlow labeled Quorn as a food "made from an unassuming member of the mushroom family."

This would have been a fine solution except for one problem: It's not true. All mushrooms are fungi, but not all fungi are mushrooms. So CSPI filed a complaint with the FDA, and the labeling was changed. This was a genuine public service for which CSPI could be applauded--if only the organization had thought to stop there.

Instead, the group began making terrifying charges against Quorn. Jacobson announced that a "key study" conducted in 1993 revealed that " as many as 10 percent of 200 volunteers experienced vomiting, nausea or stomachaches after eating Quorn ... compared with 5 percent in a 100-volunteer control group."

In truth, the study collected information on every conceivable sort of tummy upset. But CSPI focused strictly on the symptoms that made Quorn look bad. For instance, the control group suffered much higher rates of diarrhea than those who were fed Quorn. But, for reasons Jacobson declined to explain in an interview, that result was simply ignored in CSPI's report.

Jacobson did admit that there are "many ways of looking at [the evidence]." He called particular attention to the number of people in the study who experienced vomiting while eating Quorn. There were four such cases, or 2 percent--a far cry from the alarming 10 percent implied in CSPI's public charges. Nonetheless, Jacobson contends, "It may be 2 percent of consumers vomiting due to Quorn."

Not likely. The authors of the study did follow-up tests on the people who got sick, concluding that just one was "intolerant" of Quorn and a second "possibly" so. Another study was conducted and showed no substantial adverse reactions, and doctors at London's Royal Brompton Hospital tested Quorn for potential allergies and found virtually nothing of concern. So the health risks of Quorn appear to be pretty small potatoes.

Jacobson admits that numerous foods currently on the market pose far greater health risks than Quorn. Nut allergies, for instance, plague 3 million Americans, and according to the National Institutes of Health, "cause the most severe food-induced allergic reactions," including death. And beef and cheese, Jacobson says, "kill far more people" through heart disease.

So why the campaign? Quorn, Jacobson argues, should be held to tougher standards simply because "it's a new food." Of course, he's entitled to his opinion. But is it really fair to deny people the opportunity to try Quorn simply because it's new?

And in case you're wondering how Quorn tastes: Even a CSPI report admits its flavor is "fine."

Charles Hirshberg is news editor of Popular Science.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:29 AM