QuornPro and William White Meats Launch UltiMeat Blended Burger Range for UK Foodservice
- emilyt277
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
QuornPro, the foodservice arm of mycoprotein giant Quorn, has partnered with British butchery William White Meats to launch UltiMeat, a blended beef and mycoprotein range for UK restaurants, caterers, and retailers.
UltiMeat combines conventional beef with Quorn's mycoprotein, a fungal protein derived from Fusarium venenatum, to produce burgers, mince, and meatballs that the companies say cook like 100% beef while delivering a 40% smaller carbon footprint.
The launch represents a strategic pillar in Quorn's wider financial turnaround, as the company attempts to grow its foodservice revenues at a time when European retail sales of meat alternatives are declining.
A Blended Bet on Foodservice
The blended meat category, sometimes called "balanced proteins," has been gaining ground across Europe. The premise is straightforward: replace a portion of conventional meat with an alternative protein source, reducing emissions and saturated fat without asking consumers to abandon familiar flavours or textures. William White Meats, a UK-based butchery with an established "plant-boosted" protein range for foodservice operators, has now extended that approach into mycoprotein territory through a collaboration with QuornPro.
The development process involved chef teams from both companies, beginning with tabletop sampling to refine flavour, texture, and cooking performance before scaling to full production. The resulting UltiMeat range, comprising burgers, mince, and meatballs, is now listed at wholesale distributor Brakes.
What UltiMeat Offers Operators
From a practical standpoint, the range has been designed to integrate into existing kitchen workflows without additional training or equipment. William White Meats states that UltiMeat cooks like a conventional beef product and can be substituted directly on menus. One operationally notable figure: UltiMeat burgers reportedly produce just 5% cooking loss, compared with 18% for a standard beef burger, which has direct cost implications for high-volume foodservice settings.
Nutritionally, the blended products carry 15–17.5g of protein per 100g, lower saturated fat, reduced calories relative to 100% beef equivalents, and up to 3g of dietary fibre per 100g, a nutrient conventionally absent from meat products. On the environmental side, William White Meats cites a 40% reduction in carbon footprint compared with beef, consistent with the general finding that beef is among the most emissions-intensive foods produced globally.
Three in five UK consumers surveyed indicated willingness to purchase blended meat products if the taste was comparable and the price similar to conventional meat, according to figures cited alongside the launch.
Quorn's Turnaround Strategy
The UltiMeat launch arrives at a commercially sensitive moment for Quorn's parent company, Marlow Foods, which is itself owned by Philippine food conglomerate Monde Nissin. Marlow Foods recorded a 9% sales decline in 2024, though its foodservice revenues rose 2.5%, supported by the early progress of the QuornPro division. In 2025, the rate of decline slowed to 1.2%, which Quorn's CEO David Flochel has framed as the first tangible sign of a three-year transformation plan taking hold.
Retail headwinds provide the backdrop. UK meat-free retail sales fell 7% in 2025, with volumes declining a further 9%, even as a third of British consumers report wanting to reduce meat and dairy intake. Blended meat is positioned as a more commercially viable path into that latent demand, particularly through foodservice channels where operators have procurement flexibility and volume incentives.
Quorn is not alone in this pivot. Spanish food-tech company Novameat is selling blended plant-based beef to meat manufacturers using its proprietary protein texturisation technology, signalling a broader industry shift toward hybrid formats as a bridging strategy.
Limitations and Open Questions
The carbon footprint and nutritional figures cited come from William White Meats rather than from independently published lifecycle assessments, which limits how precisely those claims can be evaluated. Consumer acceptance data is drawn from survey responses rather than from post-launch sales performance. Whether blended meat can sustain meaningful revenue growth for Quorn, and reverse the broader retail trend in meat alternatives, remains to be demonstrated.