Marlow Foods, the British company which makes the meat substitute Quorn has been put up for sale by its parent company, the AstraZeneca pharmaceuticals group, according to a report in the Financial Times.
AstraZeneca has appointed investment bank Goldman Sachs to handle the disposal, the FT reports, adding that the asking price is likely to be in the region of £100 million (€155m).
Although the search for interested parties has begun, the pharmaceutical group has still not confirmed that it will definitively sell Marlow Foods. However, most analysts believe that a sale would be in line with AstraZeneca's strategy of focusing on its core pharmaceutical business, the paper said.
Quorn has been sold as a meat substitute throughout Europe for some time, but has only recently been launched in the US. However, the launch has not been easy, with a number of consumer groups there complaining about the product's labelling.
Marlow Foods describes Quorn as being based on mushrooms, but groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have claimed that this is misleading, as it is in fact made from mycoprotein produced by fungi.
The CSPI recently called on the US Food & drug Administration to reconsider its decision to allow Quorn to be sold in the US and to carry out a full analysis of the products safety. The consumer group claims to have evidence of Quorn causing diarrhoea and vomiting.
Gardenburger, a US rival to Quorn whose products are in fact made from mushrooms, has also complained that the Quorn labelling is misleading.