Tell us the story of how you and Tyler Huggins founded Meati Foods. What were your motivations, and did you set milestones for having achieved success?
Tyler and I were both pursuing our PhDs at the University of Colorado. A professor introduced us after Tyler sought out a partnership to work with mycelium to understand its potential – he was coming from the POV of an environmental engineer, and myself as a materials scientist. We immediately recognized a mutual passion for putting something out into the world that would create a meaningful change for humanity, and that shared ethos naturally drove us to explore mycelium’s potential contribution to sustainability. As a side project while in school, we went through a robust exploration together, and about a year later, we recognized that our biggest opportunity to help drive systemic change was with food. Thus, Meati was born.
Meati creates products from mushroom root that not only taste like meat, but even have some of the benefits of veggies. How do you make your product and what are its characteristics?
We make our products from mycelium, which we refer to as mushroom root. We have developed ways to grow the mycelium really efficiently in large fermentation vessels. By doing so, we can provide a very advantageous environment for its growth which uses minimum resources. Our particular mycelium can double its mass in about two hours. In fact, we like to measure our output in terms of cow-equivalents.
Right now, in the first phase only of our new Mega Ranch, we can make about five cows in three days from a teaspoon of spores. Once the ranch is fully commissioned, that equivalent potential will be more like hundreds of cows, which gives you an idea of how fast we are able to grow.
We are a relatively young company, but recently we opened our new production facility, which we are calling the Mega Ranch. There, we are able to produce substantially more meat than ever before.
Do you think that your technology is going to be able to address the increasing global food demand?
Mycelium as a food source can absolutely address food scarcity - that’s not just because of the technology we have developed, but because of the inherent efficiencies and scaling potential of mycellium. It requires little input - the mushroom root essentially needs just sugar and salts. The costs are thus low and the production facilities can be built in geographically isolated areas, since growing the mycelium in tanks means that the surrounding environment has no impact on it. This was one of the reasons why I started this company. One of the goals I have with Meati is to incorporate mycelium within everyone’s diet the world over.
How would you respond to the potential skeptics, who may not consider your product to be equivalent to ‘meat’ or who might have health concerns?
First off, safety was the primary reason we chose our species of mycelium: it is incapable of producing toxins. Another reason we focus on the mushrooms root is because of the tremendous amount of nutrients therein. There is a very healthy amount of protein in our products, a large contingent of dietary fibers, which is not really found in meat, but rather is found in plants. On top of that, a number of micronutrients that we need (e.g. vitamin B-12, iron and zinc) are found in mycelium. So, from a nutritional standpoint our product is a hybrid of meat and vegetables together. In terms of taste, we have also achieved a lot. As you grow mycelium, you can actually keep it rather flavorless. Thereafter, we make it tasty by adding different flavorings to simulate meat. Right now, we are focused on those flavourings that will feel very familiar to people who enjoy animal-based meats. In terms of the specific products, we offer steaks, cutlets and a carne asada.
It is expected that the market for plant-based meat will expand by 5 billion dollars in the next few years. Where do you see Meati’s role therein?
We certainly hope to be a leader. At the same time, we want to make sure we differentiate ourselves, as we do not see ourselves as plant-based. After all, fungi and plants belong to different kingdoms. We consider ourselves to be a new category of food, and we believe we are able to bring more to the table than just plant-based meat. One of our key focuses is to build new infrastructure facilities to meet our growing demand.
What message would you like to send to our readers to get them on board?
Ours is a natural product. People have been eating mushroom root in lots of different forms throughout history. Really what we are doing is domesticating mycelium and bringing it to consumers. Long-term, we believe Meati’s new food category will come into its own, and there will be less need to compare our foods with traditional animal meat as we build our own market in the future.
