Since its founding in 2017, Meati Foods has been on a mission to raise awareness of mycelium by bringing the ingredient to consumers’ plates with products, such as Classic Steaks and Carne Asada.
The company says that it is not within the “plant-based” space.
“What I’m trying to get done is get mycelium as its own category, so we can grow into it, and give consumers another category to manage,” said John Bortells, Meati’s new chief commercial officer in an interview with Food Dive.
“My goal is to make sure that customers don’t bring us down with the plant-based performance that has happened over the last few years.”
Bortells has been in the food and beverage industry for 36 years and got his start at Pepsi. “Growing up in Pepsi really taught me how to compete against the number one player in the category, which was then Coke,” he said. “I’ve always been that number two player that is hungrier than its competition.”
After nearly two decades at Pepsi and working his way up to VP of sales, Bortells went on to work at the Mighty Tea Leaf Company, Clover Sonoma, and finally the A2 Milk Company where he worked to create an entire new category in specialty milk.
“People had no idea what A2 milk was, designed to help lactose-intolerant consumers enjoy dairy products, and we created that subcategory of specialty milk.”
What makes mycelium different, he said, is it’s not a plant, it’s a fungi and the ingredient itself is a complete protein made up of iron, fiber, B vitamin and zinc.