A Quorn Foods official has defended his company's meat-free foods, following an attack by lobby group Center for Science in the Public Interest, according to a report by SupermarketNews.
The CSPI this week asked the US Food and Drug Administration to stop marketing Quorn products and direct its parent company, Britain's Marlow Foods, to recall all the products from supermarkets.
CSPI said more than 30 American and European consumers reported adverse reactions after eating Quorn foods, which are made primarily from myco-protein, a vegetable protein.
Consumers who became ill after eating Quorn foods spoke out at a news conference. One woman said she vomited repeatedly after eating a Quorn cutlet, and required emergency treatment for dehydration.
However Quorn Foods claims such reactions are rare, with only one in 146,000 consumers likely to have "some intolerance." Chris Samuel, Quorn's vice president of marketing, told SupermarketNews: "With every new food, people do have intolerances."
He added that since Quorn-based foods were introduced in US supermarkets in January, "we've had over 2,000 emails from American consumers happy with it."