Quorn Fillet Pieces

With more and more consumers wishing to reduce their meat consumption, it’s important to offer tasty, versatile, and nutritious alternatives. Quorn Fillet Pieces were redeveloped to reduce the number of ingredients whilst still providing a meat-like, chicken breast experience that’s high in fibre and protein and low in saturated fat. They were launched in December 2023, as a new tastier, meat-free chilled choice to replace an existing product.

Mycoprotein, the key ingredient in Quorn Fillet Pieces is inherently high in fibre, so retaining the high fibre content of the finished product was fundamental. With a simplified recipe and an improved flavour profile, we could deliver 7.1g fibre/100 kcal.

Key to consumer acceptance of meat-alternatives is taste and appearance. Many flavour iterations were required to identify the preferred flavour profile through sensory analysis. A new shape was introduced to the factory line which better resemble chicken and it was also found that the process of retorting had a beneficial effect on product appearance.

Sensory testing demonstrated that consumers preferred the new Fillet Pieces to the previous Pieces, with appearance, flavour, and texture liked significantly more. They agreed that “this is a great tasting product” and indicated that they would be more likely to buy the product than its predecessor. Indeed, many consumers post-launch, have commented on the meat like texture, resulting in them having great likeness to chicken - exactly what we were aiming for!

The new launch was supported across social media and consumer and trade PR. Retailers supported by calling out the new product online and instore through promotions. Online launch activities led to an incredibly healthy return on advertising spend in key retailers.

Quorn Fillet Pieces provide 83kcals, 0.5g saturated fat, 5.9g fibre (7.1g fibre/100kcal) and 13g of protein per 100g, making them a nutritious alternative to meat.