Diet Food Reviews
Quorn Chick'n Nuggets
By: | Sep 21, 2006
Quorn nuggets are "meat-free, soy-free and a good source of protein made from natural ingredients with 33% less fat than chicken nuggets." All those descriptors are on the Quorn box, so I was very intrigued. I should point out though that Quorn Nuggets are not vegan because they contain re-hydrated egg white. The ingredients list also mentions that it contains 2% or less of wheat gluten, which may be important if you have to live gluten free.
These Quorn nuggets taste amazing! Do not think dry, weird tasting, fake meat. Instead, picture juicy, tender 'chicken' nuggets because they sure tasted like chicken. Don't bother with the microwave directions either. Pop them in a toaster oven for 15 minutes to get that warm, crispy, breaded crust. I loved it and both my cousins who I forced to try it also loved it. Then I looked at the nutrition label. 190 calories from 3-4 nuggets? What?! I had already eaten about 6 by then because they were so tasty. There is also 15% of the daily requirement of fat (10 grams) and 8% from saturated fat (1.5 grams). But they are supposed to be 1/3 less fat than chicken nuggets. Hmmm ... let me check out Mickey D's.
A 4 pack of McDonald's nuggets are 170 calories and have the same 10 grams of fat as the Quorn nuggets. Granted, the serving of Quorn nuggets are a bit bigger at 85 grams than the McD nuggets (64 grams), but even adding one more nugget (to make it 80 grams) would only add 2.5 grams more total fat. I wonder what type of nuggets Quorn was comparing to when they said they had 1/3 less fat?! .
Quorn has gotten quite a bit of bad press about their marketing practices before. Quorn's description on their website says, "all Quorn (products) contain mycoprotein. Mycoprotein ("myco" is Greek for "fungi") is a nutritious member of the fungi family, as are mushrooms, truffles, and morels. The fungus used in all Quorn products is Fusarium Venenatum."
However, it turns out that Quorn is not at all similar to mushrooms because it's a mold. "Calling Quorn a mushroom product was like calling a rat a chicken because both are animals." [Source].
I am not averse to eating something classified as a mold - if it's good enough to be called 'gourmet' on cheeses, then I might try it. But I don't like being misled by marketing! The other nutrition facts for Quorn nuggets are for the 4 nugget serving size, you get 23% of the recommended daily amount of sodium (540 mg), 11 grams of protein and 17 grams total carbohydrate which includes 3 grams of fiber (12%) and 2 grams of sugars.
There were also reports about a lot of people having food allergies to Quorn, as documented by the Center for Science in the Public Interest here. I didn't have any allergic reactions and neither did the 2 people who I enlisted to try this. However, you have been warned.
The price is about $4.50 for a box with 15 nuggets, which is a bit much, but I'm telling you, these nuggets were good. Just be careful not to eat too much at once!
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Thanks for trying these. I've been pretty curious about them, but have known all along they were made from an ingredient grown in vats. I'll have to bring in a box for an office taste test. Thank goodness we have a toaster oven.
I'll look for these. They do seem a little high in calories though and I doubt they are better than the yummy soy nuggets at Traders Joes, which are fairly chicken-nugget-like.
1/3 *less* fat doesn't mean 1/3 *of the* fat. It means, for example, that if a 6-pack of Mickey D's nuggets has 12 grams of fat, these would have 8 grams of fat, not 4. (12 minus a third of 12, 4, equals 8 -- one third less.) That's one of the ways ALL "lite" foods use to manipulate our thinking, so we need to be watchful.
I am really glad you reviewed these. I am allergic to soy and it's tough to find healthy food without it these days.
I meant to say "6-pack of Mickey D's nuggets has 12 grams of fat, SIX OF these would have 8 grams of fat, not 4."
Serving size is also an important thing, which you highlight nicely.