NHS to serve meat sausages and burgers blended with Quorn by end of year

Products that are a blend of Quorn and meat are to be served by NHS services by the end of the year, according to the company.

The products will not be marketed under the 'Quorn' brand, but 'Mycoprotein', which is the protein source in Quorn foodstuffs, which will be listed among the ingredients.

Mycoprotein will be blended with meat to create items such as burgers and sausages.

The new products would be 50% meat and 50% Mycoprotein, replacing some 100% meat items.

The move comes as Quorn looks to not just encourage people to cut out meat, but also to reduce their meat consumption.

"The reduction in meat consumption is not happening fast enough or with enough scale," Quorn CEO Marco Bertacca said.

"Quorn Foods’ role in the past was to help a few people eat no meat. We have now evolved into a company that helps everyone eat less meat – because that’s what the world needs," he added.

There are already blended meat products on NHS menus, the company said, and Quorn products would be added to those already available.

In the UK, people ate 17% less meat in 2019 than they did in 2008, according to the Vegetarian Society, while the plant-based alternative market in the EU and UK is predicted to grow from £3.9 billion in 2019 to £6.6 billion in 2025, ING data suggests.

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