Mushroom Innovator Fable Foods Opens Its Spores to Blended Meat – Here’s Why

Fable Foods co-founder and CEO Michael Fox explains why the company has decided to work with meat producers on blended applications.

Climate Week NYC is coinciding with a new era for blended meat, with a major taste test revealing that Americans like part-meat, part-plant burgers and nuggets more than their conventional counterparts.

The survey, carried out by research firm Nectar, revealed that 56% of people liked blended burgers produced by the market-leading brands, versus 42% who liked the taste of 100% beef burgers. They preferred the former’s savouriness and beefy flavour, their juicy texture, and appearance.

One of these leading brands was Fable Foods, the Australian plant protein maker that had made its name with meaty mushroom products. The brand had never indicated a move into the blended category before, so its inclusion in the survey was somewhat of a surprise.

But its new Shiitake Infusion offering – designed to be blended with beef mince – has been two years in the making, reveals co-founder and CEO Michael Fox, who realised that most consumers aren’t interested in absolute veganism, but are more inclined to be flexible.

Plant-based meat still only makes up 1% of the entire meat market, which itself is valued at $2T. “A lot of people do want to reduce their meat consumption, but they don’t want to sacrifice taste, price and convenience in reducing their meat consumption,” Fox tells Green Queen.

“At the moment, the plant-based options in the market – including ours – require most omnivore consumers to make some sacrifice. And that’s why the plant-based market has remained small,” he adds.

“So we started brainstorming new ways to help consumers who want to reduce their meat consumption. We decided to try and meet those consumers where they are – reducing with smaller portions of meat, and altering recipes by substituting vegetables for some meat.”

Fable Foods, which has so far secured $15M from investors, has already attracted multi-channel interest in the product. “We have partnered with a retailer and a large catering organisation in Australia, who are both using our Shiitake Infusion product,” Fox says. “We’re close to launching with a North American retailer and are in discussions with additional retailers and catering organisations in the US.”

The blended meat has appealed to its foodservice customers too, and the brand is “actively working on product development projects” with the ingredient for those clients.

Fable Foods’ blended meat sells 10 times faster than plant-based SKU

The Shiitake Infusion ingredient is 89% shiitake mushrooms, and is mixed with water, rice, canola and coconut oils, yeast extract, mushroom powder, and salt. Compared to an 80/20 beef mince, the blended meat is 35% lower in saturated fat, has half the cholesterol and 17% fewer calories, and contains 8g of fibre per serving (versus zero).

“We aren’t the first to mix non-meat ingredients with beef – it’s been done for years, primarily at the cheaper end of the market,” Fox points out. In just the last year, 50/50 Foods’ Both Burger has landed on the menu at Disneyland, Mush Foods’s 50Cut Burger has become part of Pat LaFrieda’s portfolio, fellow Aussie company Harvest B has entered the space, and industry giant Quorn has begun offering its mycoprotein to British hospitals for blended burgers and sausages.

“Our focus at Fable is on creating a product that’s not just a compromise, but an improvement that consumers prefer over 100% beef in terms of taste, texture, and experience, [and is] cheaper and also carries the health and environmental benefits we’re striving for,” he says.

“Our new Shiitake Infusion product is resonating with consumers, and the value proposition is incredibly strong. With more advancements and innovation coming to the fore, I do think there will be more brands who explore this path.”

Consumers do seem to be taking to it. In the Nectar taste test, three in four preferred the taste of a blended burger with Shiitake Infusion over a 100% beef version. It’s not just the US, though. Fable Foods partnered with a supermarket in Australia to trial a 1lb pack of blended mince in a 50-50 ratio.

The product was placed alongside ground beef on shelves. Half the people who tasted it during in-store samplings purchased it on the spot. And since launching, it has been selling 50 units per store per week – 10 times higher than the sales of its Pulled Shiitake SKU.

Australians are increasingly cost-conscious, especially when it comes to reducing meat and embracing plant-based food. So it helps that the Fable Foods blended burger could end up being 5% cheaper. Plus, there are the climate benefits: selling 100 of these burgers would cut 270kg of dietary carbon emissions and 110,000 litres of water.

Moving past the ‘all-or-nothing’ approach

When Fable Foods announced the move, it admitted that this could be controversial. A vegan company, making products that end up in meat is contradictory. But as the success of blended meat over the last year has shown, the decision isn’t unfounded.

“At Fable, we believe in supporting people who want to reduce their meat intake as the most effective way to create change. Fable produces the mushrooms rather than the beef, and we recognise the importance of an inclusive approach, which focuses on reducing meat consumption rather than pushing for an all-or-nothing shift,” says Fox.

He calls the black-and-white approach to meat-eating polarising and alienating. “Inclusion and supporting those who want to reduce, but aren’t prepared to eliminate, their consumption of animal products leads to a larger reduction in meat consumption than a polarised ‘vegans vs non-vegans’ mentality,” he suggests.

“We cheer on and celebrate the vegetarians and vegans who have crossed the finish line and changed their habits,” he adds. “But… we believe an inclusive approach will help achieve a larger impact in reducing global meat consumption and in mitigating the harmful outcomes it has on the environment, consumer health, and animal welfare.”

Even Peter Singer, the noted animal rights pioneer who authored 1975’s Animal Liberation and is known as the father of effective altruism, isn’t against this approach. Speaking to Fox on an episode of his Talking Shiitake podcast, he stated that this would be a good thing for animals and the environment, which would benefit from fewer methane emissions and less land used to grow soy for feed.

“While I would rather we got away from beef and other animal products altogether, this does seem to be something that an ethic that looks towards consequences can support, because the consequences will be better than people just continuing to eat 100% beef,” Singer said. (It should be noted that he is an investor in Fable Foods.)

Fox warns that companies entering the blended meat segment need to ensure these are products that consumers prefer over 100% meat in sensory tests. “If we don’t, we risk those who trial blended products not returning, undoing any of the potential health and planetary gains we are all seeking,” he explains.

“Our next challenge is to effectively communicate this product’s benefits to consumers and drive trial. We’re testing various messaging and marketing activities to determine what works best, because we’ve seen firsthand that when people try it, they love it.”