Mycoprotein is a high-protein, high-fibre food grown from the soil fungus Fusarium venenatum, best known worldwide under the brand Quorn. It is produced not by picking a mushroom but by fermenting the fungus in giant steel vats — as it grows it forms a mass of fine, thread-like filaments (hyphae) that are harvested, drained and set into a pale, lightly chewy dough. That naturally fibrous, meat-like texture, combined with a mild, savoury flavour that readily takes on seasoning, has made mycoprotein one of the most successful modern meat substitutes and the first major food built around a fungus grown by continuous fermentation rather than farmed on a field.