Quorn vegetarian turkey slices – ethical review

Last week at the Grocery Outlet I bought some Quorn Meatless Turkey-Style Deli Slices, to give them their full name. They were $1.99 for a pack of 10 slices, compared to… um, actually I don’t see a price for them online – I guess they are very new, or very limited. Having lived in the UK and Ireland, I’m very familiar with other Quorn products – as one of the pioneers in vegetarian “meat substitutes” Quorn was a great help in my early days of being a vegetarian.

These slices were better than I was expecting. I buy Tofurky deli-slices from time to time and the Quorn product is a bit closer to the taste and texture of turkey (if that matters to you). It looks like they made a small error in the packaging but stating that it contains two servings instead of three – I think that’s often how stuff ends up at the Grocery Outlet. There’s some slight problem with the packaging, or perhaps the product is being tested out on a trial basis, or close to expiration. Either way, it’s a win-win for Grocery Outlet customers and for reducing food waste.

Overall, I liked these vegetarian turkey slices and thought they would work for someone who’s trying to go plant-based but still craving the taste of real turkey. They work well on toast combined with tomato, avocado, or one of the vegan cheeses that I’ll be reviewing in the coming weeks.  Nutritionally, they pack in a lot of protein (9 grams per serving) and a fair amount of fiber (4 g), while being very low in fat and sugar.

Quorn Meatless Turkey-Style Deli Slices – ingredients

Mycoprotein (65%), Egg White, Yeast Extract, Milk Proteins, Pea Fiber. Contains 2% or less of Canola Oil, Natural Flavor, Onion Powder, Sage, Potato Maltodextrin, Sugar, Salt, Tapioca Dextrin.

Ethical rating for Quorn Meatless Turkey-Style Deli Slices

I’ve profiled Quorn Foods over on the Green Stars Project, so I’ll refer you to that post for more information and just summarize it here. In that post I rated Quorn’s vegan burger patties 5/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact. The footprint of these turkey-style deli-slices is a bit higher as they contain eggs and milk protein. Quorn do source cage-free eggs for their products and did receive a Good Egg award from Compassion in World Farming for the company’s avoidance of caged eggs. Ideally Quorn would source pasture-raised eggs as these are a significant step-up in quality of life for hens, compared to cage-free.

So take a look at the post on the Green Stars Project on the sustainability and ethics of Quorn, and you can find more background info on why I’m scoring these Quorn deli-slices 4/5 Green Stars. 

Summary scores (out of 5) for Quorn Meatless Turkey-Style Deli Slices:

• 4.5 gold stars for quality and value.
• 4 green stars for social and environmental impact

If you have a different opinion, please share your rating! Until next time, stay safe : )