Many highly processed “fakin’ bacon” products have more than a dozen ingredients. MyForest Foods’ new product—the first-ever whole-cut mycelium-based bacon ($8.99)—is nearly 100% mushroom root. Because “fungi are fundamentally closer to animals than they are to plants evolutionarily,” the mushroom root can deliver the flesh-like texture and gristle bacon-lovers expect, says Eben Bayer, co-founder and CEO. (Five other ingredients, including salt and sugar, provide flavor.) Bayer grew up on a Vermont family farm raising and slaughtering pigs, but his startup grows and harvests mycelium a bit faster than animals. It takes just 12 days for 100-foot-long slabs of mushroom to be ready in MyForest’s brand-new vertical mycelium farm in upstate New York, which opened in July and will scale up the company’s retail and direct-to-consumer plans.
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