Health Canada has given the greenlight to an alternative protein company funded by billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos that turns a fungus found in soil and plants into edible meat and protein substitutes.
According to an information bulletin Health Canada notified Nature’s Fynd, formerly known as Sustainable Bioproducts LLC, that it can sell its “novel food” products in Canada for human consumption.
“Health Canada has notified The Fynder Group, Inc. DBA: Nature’s Fynd (herein referred to as Nature’s Fynd) that it has no objection to the food use of Fy Protein™ from Fusarium sp. strain flavolapis (also referred to as Fusarium strain flavolapis in the literature) as a food ingredient and alternative protein source,” the bulletin states.
“Fy Protein” as it’s officially known is a fungus called Fusarium stain flavolapis, which was uncovered by the company in a NASA supported study on life in extreme environments.
“It’s mind-blowing that we’re relying today for food on the same species we started to domesticate when agriculture began 11,000 years ago,” said Nature’s Fynd CEO Thomas Jonas in 2020.
“Out of the millions of organisms and species on the planet, we have perfected our system around fewer than 10 plants that provide about 60% of our global caloric intake—including the plants that feed the animals that we eat. That’s reaching its limitations in terms of its efficiency and its ability to provide food to all of us.”
Groups like the World Economic Forum have promoted the idea of alternative proteins, including those sourced from insects, as being a potential solution to climate change.
Canada has already seen one major facility operate in London, Ontario devoted to creating edible cricket proteins to be used in dog food. According to Aspire Food Group, the company hopes to open a second factory and branch into products for human consumption.
Extracted from the geysers of Yellowstone National Park, Fy Protein is being turned into alternative chicken and other products.
The company has received millions in support from the likes of billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Michael Bloomberg and financing has been led by Al Gore.
Nature’s Fynd has been able to raise a total of $158 million in funds and has already been used in meatless breakfast patties and cream cheese products.
According to Health Canada, the product approval came after a comprehensive assessment of Fy Protein’s safety.
“The levels of the reported contaminants in Fy Protein™ are therefore not expected to pose a concern to human health,” wrote Health Canada.
“The Public Health Agency of Canada’s ePATHogen database classified the Fusarium genus as risk group 2, hence representing a pathogen that is able to cause serious disease in humans or animals but is unlikely to do so. Literature reports indicate that Fusarium infections are rare and opportunistic, developing in patients with trauma, injury, or in severely immunocompromised conditions, however, Fusarium spp. are of limited pathogenicity in otherwise healthy individuals.”
