Could Crisps Be Cooked? Spud Waste Gets a Fungi Makeover

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Potato chips might be having their last salty laugh. A US food tech company has just patented a way to turn old spuds and peelings into juicy meat alternatives and it might just change the way we think about potatoes forever.

US based, The Better Meat Co. has scored its sixth U.S. patent, this time for the wild idea of fermenting spud waste with mycelium to produce a high-protein, cholesterol-free meat alternative called Rhiza. And it’s ready in just a few hours. Forget cow farts and climate guilt. This is meat made from mushroom roots and leftover mash.

Source: Better Meat Co - Rhiza Fermented Potato - Mushroom product

The science is deceptively simple. Take your potato waste like offcuts, ugly tubers, the bits the chip factories chuck, and dunk them into a fungal jacuzzi. Add strains like Neurospora and Aspergillus, and boom, you’ve got a meat-like substance with 50% protein by dry weight, all essential amino acids, and none of the cholesterol or saturated fat that sends doctors into a spiral.

Founder Paul Shapiro says it’s about turning “low-value starch into high-value protein.” And with North American, Asian, and South American meat companies already sniffing around, the writing might be on the wall for more than just the chip aisle.

And let’s talk texture. This isn’t mushroomy mush. Rhiza can be formed into nuggets, patties, even faux sausages, and with a bit of flavour wizardry, it passes for chicken, beef, or pork. The stuff can even be dried, powdered, and rehydrated on demand - think of it as future meat you can stack next to your pasta.

Source: Better Meat Co Potato - Rhiza Mushroom Products

There’s an industrial fermentation plant in the works too which is capable of producing 150,000 litres of bubbling, potato-fuelled mycoprotein magic. So we’re not talking boutique food tech here. We’re talking scaling up, replacing animal protein, and giving farmers, manufacturers, and even supermarket giants something entirely new to chew on.

So here’s a question worth seasoning with vinegar - Will future generations even know what a chip tastes like? Or will the humble potato quietly turn into a globally scalable protein platform, leaving deep-fried slices of nostalgia in the compost bin?

If there’s such a thing as a potato revolution, this one’s being led by fungus and it doesn’t care how many flavours of crisps you’ve got in the pantry.

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