Even though supermarket shelves are full of products that attempt – with varying degrees of success – to emulate minced meat without a single pig or cow being involved, consumers haven't entirely embraced it.
In fact, sales of processed plant-based products fell in 2022 after growing 52% overall in the previous three years, according to the Danish knowledge centre Plantebaseret Videnscenter.
That's why we need a new generation of plant-based meat that is not ultra-processed and that tastes better. At least that's what the people behind Matr Foods believe, and the solution is completely natural – mushrooms, also known as fungi.
Matr is collaborating with DTU and has several DTU staff among its co-founders, namely Professor Morten Sommer and co-principal investigator Leoni Johanna Jahn, both from DTU Biosustain, and affiliated professor Claus Meyer.
"We're not trying to imitate meat, because when you compare plant-based alternatives to the real thing, they never taste exactly the same. Instead, we're trying to make a product that tastes delicious in its own way," says Leoni Johanna Jahn, who is also Science Advisor at Matr.
