Bolder Foods, an alternative dairy start-up based in Belgium, has introduced ‘MycoVeg,’ a new mycelium-based ingredient for cheese alternatives.

Headquartered in Brussels, Bolder Foods aims to improve the sustainability of the cheese industry by providing innovative alternative ingredients with potential to “revolutionise the way we enjoy cheese alternatives”.

The company said its founders were motivated to make a change, recognising that cheese has the third-largest carbon footprint in the food industry after beef and lamb.

Bolder Foods stated that the toolkit available today to manufacturers and dairy companies is “not strong enough” to create “truly mainstream products that meet consumer expectations in terms of taste, texture and price”.

The company has addressed the challenge by developing a biomass fermentation process that yields a semi-finished product, which can be used as a bulk ingredient to enhance taste and texture, enabling the creation of cheese alternatives that closely resemble their dairy counterparts.

Bolder Foods described the ingredient as able to offer “deliciously creamy, unctuous and elastic textures,” with flavours ranging from neutral to “punchy cheesy umami” notes.

Mycelium was chosen by the company due to its environmental sustainability, requiring minimal resources to grow rapidly, and its nutritional value. MycoVeg offers alt-cheese products a source of fibre, protein and vitamins.

Its versatility means mycelium can also be transformed easily into various end products by adjusting inputs and production methods.

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