NutraCast: MycoTechnology on creating novel ingredients with mushrooms

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MycoTechnology has partnered with brands to deliver foods, beverages, and supplements by harnessing the metabolic engine of mushrooms to create novel ingredients. The Colorado-based functional ingredients platform leverages a proprietary mushroom fermentation process to create transformative food ingredients. By combining age-old processes with modern-day science, MycoTechnology has developed a range of solutions that address sugar reduction, sustainable protein, nutrient density, and more.

“Let's take shiitake for example, which is one that we use. It essentially sends out messages into its environment and enzymes into its environment, alters its environment, and then brings in the energy that it needs. So it's leaving behind a lot of very favorable compounds that we can use either as a flavorite or that changes the biomass, so it is very much an equation like brewing,” said Jim Alderink, Chief Product Officer at MycoTechnology.

Alderink added that MycoTechnology is very intentional with who their clients are because mushrooms can go in so many directions. We're myopically focused on the food industry now, but we have been linked to the cosmetic industry. There's loads of different mushroom type products there, Estee Lauder wouldn't mind me giving a plug and talking about their Origins line, really substantiated by a lot of different fungal mechanisms within that.  But we're really working hard to stay in the confines of the food industry at this time. Meat alternatives, dairy alternatives of all types, protein, whether it's ready to drink, ready to mix, all the way into CBD and cannabis gummies. Savory protein snacks and then products that are trying to add nutritional content. We have two different product lines.”

MycoTechnology’s current ingredient portfolio includes FermentIQ protein, a line of plant-based protein products, and ClearIQ flavor, a range of clean-label flavor modulation tools that facilitate sugar and salt reduction and the creation of more nutrient dense products.

To hear more on MycoTechnology’s range of solutions and what's in store after securing a funding injection of $85 million, listen to the NutraCast.

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