Just add mushrooms: Making meals more nutritious

Understanding the nutritional impact of adding a serving of mushrooms on usual intakes and population nutrient adequacy using NHANES 2011-2016 data

FLM HARVEST

Research News

 

IMAGE: NEW RESEARCH FINDS THAT ADDING A MUSHROOM SERVING TO THE DIET INCREASED THE INTAKE OF SEVERAL MICRONUTRIENTS, INCLUDING SHORTFALL NUTRIENTS SUCH AS VITAMIN D, WITHOUT ANY INCREASE IN CALORIES, SODIUM... view more 

CREDIT: MUSHROOM COUNCIL

February 1, 2021 - Researchers have identified another good reason to eat more mushrooms. New research , published in Food Science & Nutrition (January 2021) found that adding a mushroom serving to the diet increased the intake of several micronutrients, including shortfall nutrients such as vitamin D, without any increase in calories, sodium or fat.

Dr. Victor L. Fulgoni III and Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal modeled the addition of mushrooms to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2016 dietary data looking at a composite of white, crimini and portabella mushrooms at a 1:1:1 ratio; one scenario including UV-light exposed mushrooms; and one scenario including oyster mushrooms for both 9-18 years and 19+ years of age based on an 84g or ½ cup equivalent serving.

Key findings include:

• Adding an 84g serving of mushrooms increased several shortfall nutrients including potassium and fiber. This was true for the white, crimini and portabella 1:1:1 mix and the oyster mushrooms.
• The addition of a serving (84 g) of mushrooms to the diet resulted in an increase in dietary fiber (5%-6%), copper (24%-32%), phosphorus (6%), potassium (12%-14%), selenium (13%-14%), zinc (5%-6%), riboflavin (13%-15%), niacin (13%-14%), and choline (5%-6%) in both adolescents and adults; but had no impact on calories, carbohydrate, fat or sodium.
• When commonly consumed mushrooms are exposed to UV-light to provide 5 mcg vitamin D per serving, vitamin D intake could meet and slightly exceed the recommended daily value (98% - 104%) for both the 9 -18 year and 19+ year groups as well as decrease inadequacy of this shortfall nutrient in the population.
• A serving of UV-light exposed commonly consumed mushrooms decreased population inadequacy for vitamin D from 95.3% to 52.8% for age group 9-18 years and from 94.9% to 63.6% for age group 19+ years.

"This research validated what we already knew that adding mushrooms to your plate is an effective way to reach the dietary goals identified by the DGA ," said Mary Jo Feeney, MS, RD, FADA and nutrition research coordinator to the Mushroom Council. "Data from surveys such as NHANES are used to assess nutritional status and its association with health promotion and disease prevention and assist with formulation of national standards and public health policy (CDC, 2020)."

Mushrooms are fungi - a member of the third food kingdom - biologically distinct from plant and animal-derived foods that comprise the USDA food patterns yet have a unique nutrient profile that provides nutrients common to both plant and animal foods. Although classified into food grouping systems by their use as a vegetable, mushrooms' increasing use in main entrees in plant-forward diets is growing, supporting consumers' efforts to follow food-based dietary guidance recommendations to lower intake of calories, saturated fatty acids, and sodium while increasing intake of under-consumed nutrients including fiber, potassium and vitamin D. Often grouped with vegetables, mushrooms provide many of the nutrient attributes of produce, as well as attributes more commonly found in meat, beans or grains.

According to the USDA's FoodData Central , 5 medium raw, white mushrooms (90g) contain 20 calories, 0g fat, 3g protein and are very low in sodium (0mg/<1% recommended daily value). Few foods naturally contain vitamin D, and mushrooms are unique in that they are the only food in the produce aisle that contain vitamin D. Specifically, one serving of raw, UV-exposed, white (90g) and crimini (80g) mushrooms contains 23.6mcg (118% RDA) and 25.52mcg (128% RDA) of vitamin D, respectively.

Mushrooms are one of the best dietary sources of sulfur-containing antioxidant amino acid ergothioneine and tripeptide glutathione Ergothioneine and glutathione contents in mushrooms depends upon the mushroom varieties, and oyster mushrooms contain more amounts of these sulfur-containing antioxidants than commonly consumed mushrooms: white button, crimini, or portabella mushrooms. The addition of a serving of commonly consumed mushrooms and oyster mushrooms would be expected to add 2.24 and 24.0 mg ergothioneine, respectively, and 3.53 and 12.3 mg glutathione, respectively, to the NHANES 2011-2016 diets based on published literature values.

At this time, the USDA FoodData Central database does not include analytical data on ergothioneine. However, the Mushroom Council is currently supporting research to analyze mushrooms for bioactives/ergothioneine for possible inclusion in USDA FoodData Central database.

More Research from the Mushroom Council Still to Come

With mushrooms growing in awareness and consideration among consumers nationwide, in 2019, the Mushroom Council made a $1.5 million multi-year investment in research to help broaden understanding of the food's nutritional qualities and overall health benefits.

In addition to the analysis of mushrooms for bioactives/ergothioneine for inclusion in USDA FoodData Central database, additional research projects approved include:

• Health promoting effects of including mushrooms as part of a healthy eating pattern.
• Mushrooms' relationship with cognitive health in older adults.
• Mushrooms' impact on brain health in an animal model.
• Nutritional impact of adding a serving of mushrooms to USDA Food Patterns.

Since 2002, the Council has conducted research that supports greater mushroom demand by discovering nutrient and health benefits of mushrooms. Published results from these projects form the basis for communicating these benefits to consumers and health influencers.

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For more nutrition information, recipes and links to other Mushroom Council-funded studies, visit mushroomcouncil.org.

The intake data from NHANES are self-reported which rely on memory and are therefore subject to reporting bias. The results presented are based on modeling to evaluate the maximum effect of adding mushrooms and may not reflect actual individual dietary behavior; however, such modeling offers a technique to test potential nutritional impact of dietary guidance.

About the Mushroom Council

The Mushroom Council is composed of fresh market producers or importers who average more than 500,000 pounds of mushrooms produced or imported annually. The mushroom program is authorized by the Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act of 1990 and is administered by the Mushroom Council under the supervision of the Agricultural Marketing Service. Research and promotion programs help to expand, maintain and develop markets for individual agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad. These industry self-help programs are requested and funded by the industry groups that they serve. For more information, visit mushroomcouncil.org.

 

Food claiming to have 'wild mushrooms' rarely do

by Lisa Potter, University of Utah

Food products analyzed in study. The manufacturer names have been blurred to

 protect their identity. Credit: Cutler II WD et. al. PeerJ (2021)

Harvesting wild mushrooms requires an expert eye to distinguish between the delicious and the inedible. Misidentification can have a range of consequences, from a disgusting taste and mild illness to organ failure and even death. Culinary wild mushrooms staples, such as truffles or porcini, require symbiotic relationships with specific plants in the ecosystem that make it impractical or impossible to produce them commercially. This means they can only be harvested from their natural habitat, which is why porcini and truffles are often so expensive. Many food producers opt for common fungi that can be cultivated easily and grown in large quantities, such as oyster, shiitake, and portabella mushrooms.

The United States has minimal regulations around the harvest and sale of wild fungi. Food products that tout "wild mushrooms" as ingredients are often vague and non-specific, making it impossible to know if the products are truly wild or just cultivated varieties, or even if they contain poisonous mushrooms harmful to humans.

In a new study, researchers from the University of Utah (U) and the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) used DNA barcoding techniques to test what mushroom species made up 16 food products that listed "wild mushrooms" on their labels. The authors sourced soups, dried mushrooms, powdered mushrooms, pasta sauces, and flavor enhancers from local grocery stores around Salt Lake City, Utah, and a large online retailer.

They found 28 species of mushrooms across all 16 food products. Almost all products that claimed to have wild mushrooms consisted of cultivated species, including oyster, shiitake, or portabella mushrooms. Only five products had contents that were accurately described on the label, and some included species that likely have yet to be described in academic literature. One packet of dried wild mushrooms from the online retailer contained a species from a group of fungi that includes the "Death Cap," a notoriously poisonous mushroom known to cause renal failure in humans.

"If you looked at the reviews on this product, a surprising number of people wrote that the mushrooms 'made me violently ill,' or that they had 'never been so sick in my life,'" said Dalley Cutler, lead author of the paper and a recent biology graduate at the U. "No one is checking if the mushrooms are what the labels say they are."

The authors contacted the online retailer to inform them of the potential dangers of the product. As of the paper's publication, the dried mushrooms are still for sale. The mislabeling across the wide range of products could be due of fraud, negligence, or just a lack of awareness.

Bryn Dentinger (left) and a graduate student collected 50 pounds of porcini mushrooms in

 southern Utah. Credit: Bryn Dentinger

"There's an ignorance about mushrooms in general—in food products, museum collections, the definition for wild mushrooms are all over the place," said Alexander Bradshaw, co-author of the study and doctoral student at the U. "One package of dried mushrooms said it contained porcini, defined by a characteristic spongy texture underneath the cap. Just by looking at it, we knew it was untrue—the mushrooms had gills underneath their caps. It seems like if you can dry it down, you can just slap a porcini label on it."

The authors say their results are inevitable partly because policies that regulate the international food supply chain vary wildly. Some parts of Europe require a license to collect edible wild mushrooms, but the guidelines differ between countries. In the U.S., state governments are responsible for regulating commercial wild mushrooms sales, but only 31 states have any regulations at all, according to a National Survey of State Regulation of Wild Mushroom Foraging for Retail Sale.

Another reason for inconsistencies is because the field of mycology is vastly understudied.

"About 95% of fungal species on Earth are undescribed. Fungi are so poorly documented, how do you regulate something that is virtually unknown?" said Bryn Dentinger, senior author of the paper, curator of mycology at the Natural History Museum of Utah, and associate professor of biology at the U. "This puts human health at risk, but it also puts our ecosystems at risk. Around the world, unsustainable harvesting practices could put rare and threatened species at risk of extinction."

There are still safe ways to enjoy wild mushrooms, the researchers say. Just know who you're buying from.

"I don't want people to read this and be scared to eat porcini and other wild edible mushrooms, they are delicious," said Dalley. "This study looked only at packaged products, not locally harvested wild mushrooms. I would encourage people that enjoy porcini and other wild edibles to only purchase from local sellers that are qualified in the identification of wild mushrooms."

The study was published online in the journal PeerJ on Aug. 2, 2021.

Review of arsenic speciation in mushrooms from China

More information: W. Dalley Cutler II et al, What's for dinner this time?: DNA authentication of "wild mushrooms" in food products sold in the USA, PeerJ (2021). DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11747

Journal information: PeerJ 

Provided by University of Utah 

An abundance of mushrooms to forage and study thanks to N.B.'s wet summer

CBC
Sun, August 27, 2023

Some samples of the newly named species of hedgehog mushroom - hydnum atlanticum. (Submitted by Alfredo Justo - image credit)

While all the wet weather this summer has resulted in challenging times for some New Brunswick farmers, it's been the opposite for people foraging or studying mushrooms.

Heading into the peak season for mushrooms, there's an abundance of them in New Brunswick.

Alfredo Justo, head of botany and mycology at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, confirmed the recent wet weather has helped.

"It has been a really good year ... for example, chanterelles started fruiting this year in early July," said Justo in an interview with CBC's Shift.

"Whenever you have a year like these with lots of rain, you're going to see a lot of the summer edibles, before the fall season, fruiting in July and August, and that's what we're seeing this year."

Be careful what mushrooms you eat

Justo said there's a growing interest in mushrooms in general, and he sees it when he's out in the field. But he cautions enthusiasts to make sure they know what they're picking.

Alfredo Justo is the curator of botany and mycology for the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John.

'Whenever you have a year like this with lots of rain, you're going to see a lot of the summer edibles, before the fall season ... and that's what we're seeing this year,' says Alfredo Justo, curator of botany and mycology at the N.B. Museum in Saint John. (Submitted by Alfredo Justo)

"If you're foraging for mushrooms for eating, you always have to be 100 per cent certain of what you are collecting," he said. "You have to have basic knowledge of the most common edibles and also the most common and more dangerous toxic species that occur in your area."

Jessika Gauvin is president of the MycoNB Society, and said her mother taught her to forage for mushrooms from a very young age when she was growing up in Moncton.

She agrees there has been a surge in interest over the past few years, especially during and after the pandemic.

"It's really cool to see all of the excitement around mushrooms," she said. "I go out now and people no longer look at me like I have three heads. They're like, 'Are you after chanterelles?' It's cool to see more awareness around it.'"

Jessika Gauvin said foraging for mushrooms is becoming more popular in New Brunswick.

Jessika Gauvin, president of the MycoNB Society, says foraging for mushrooms is catching on in New Brunswick and 'it's cool to see more awareness around it.' (Submitted by Jessika Gauvin)

Gauvin also runs a company, Enchanted Mushroom Forest, which offers guided foraging tours or coaching.

She said New Brunswick has a rich diversity of mushroom species, and it does take some dedication to learn to tell them apart.

"We have hundreds of mushroom species here," said Gauvin.

"Our really popular mushrooms have got to be the chanterelles, the hedgehog mushrooms, lobster mushrooms. Those are probably the most common ones here but we have meadow mushrooms, horse mushrooms — those are the ones related to the ones you get at the store."

Mycoblitz project

Justo said there is also a very active citizen scientist community in the province, who often help gather mushrooms for further study.

A large matsutake mushroom found last year by Jessika Gauvin, who said they smell like cinnamon.

A large matsutake mushroom found last year by Gauvin, who says they smell like cinnamon. (Submitted by Jessika Gauvin)

He and other researchers, including some of the citizen scientists, are taking part in the Maritimes for Mycoblitz, a North American research project spanning Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick for the first time this summer.

Together, they hope to assemble 1,000 collections of mushrooms.

"That seems like a lot, but it's actually just a small grain of sand in the study of biodiversity," Justo said. "But it's a good number."

N.B. scientists name new mushroom species

A good year for foraging has also meant a good year for scientific study.

Justo and his colleagues recently published a paper naming a new species of hedgehog mushroom, which was found and identified as part of a project in 2021 to study chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms in New Brunswick.

Examples of the newly described species of hedgehog mushroom, Hydnum atlanticum.

Justo says hydnum atlanticum mushrooms are very similar in appearance to other hedgehog mushrooms — small-to-medium sized with brown and orange colours on the cap. (Submitted by Alfredo Justo)

"One of the finds was this species," he said. "We have over 30 collections of it. When we got the DNA sequencing back, it was a species that was not formally described."

He described the mushroom, which they dubbed hydnum atlanticum, as very similar in appearance to other hedgehog mushrooms — small-to-medium sized with brown and orange colours on the cap.

Is the new species rare?

The next step after naming the mushroom species is for scientists to study how rare or common it is, and where it can be found. So far, according to Justo, it has been found in New Brunswick, Labrador and parts of New York.

According to Justo, the next step after naming the mushroom species is for scientists to study how rare or common it is, and where it can be found.

According to Justo, the next step after naming the mushroom species is for scientists to study how rare or common it is, and where it can be found. (Submitted by Alfredo Justo)

He said the classification means the data is available to researchers throughout North America.

"Now they have the morphological data available, they have the DNA data available to them," he said.

Justo said researchers can compare their hedgehog mushroom finds to this one, to see if it's widespread or if it's going to be a rare species.

"We'll have to find out in the coming years."

Fun with fungi: St. John's group demonstrating magic of mushrooms for Fungus Appreciation Day


CBC
Sun, October 22, 2023


Sisters Andrea and Lisa van Nostrand are celebrating Fungus Appreciation Day by demonstrating how mushrooms can be used as dye. (Heather Barrett/CBC)

Sunday is Fungus Appreciation Day and several events are planned at the Johnson Geo Centre in St. John's to put the spotlight on these organisms.

"They're integral to the environment, they make healthy soils and they allow us to dye wool. Food sustainability. People are growing them themselves," said Andrea van Nostrand, the Geo Centre's lead on interpretation and education.

"They're nutritious. They're easy to grow. Anyone can grow them. You know, this is a topic that you could teach courses on."

Andrea and her sister Lisa van Nostrand will be demonstrating how to dye wool with mycelium, the mushroom's root network.

Lisa says they gather the mushrooms and then dice them up, place them in a mesh bag and let them simmer in a pot for an hour.

"It's a simple process and you get unexpected results because you don't always know the colours that you're going to get," she said.


Lisa van Nostrand said the dyed material has a lot of variation, but they tend to end up what she called muted, neutral colours. (Heather Barrett/CBC)

"From beige, yellow, orange, brown and rust colours. And so they're maybe a little bit of green. So they're quite muted, neutral colours. You know, you're not going to get fuchsia, not with their mushrooms anyway.… You get a really natural looking colours," said Lisa.

Andrea says she isn't sure how common using mushrooms as dye is in the province, but pointed to plenty of resources on the subject including books, articles and websites.

They also won't be eating any mushrooms during the demonstration as they could be poisonous, she said, with Lisa chiming in, "Well, they're not edible, let's put it that way."

The rise of the mushroom

Lisa recalled that growing up in St. John's, the common message was that mushrooms were poisonous, so they didn't eat them. Now she's seen an "explosion" in interest. While she enjoys foraging for mushrooms, Lisa said she doesn't actually like to eat them.

Andrea has also seen a proliferation of local mushrooms-related businesses and even farms that grow mushrooms to sell.

Anita Walsh operates such a farm with her family, the 160 hectare Portugal Cove-St. Philip's-based Windy Heights Farm. On top of growing mushrooms, they also sell mushroom growing kits.


Anita Walsh poses with a range of edible mushrooms, which are all grown indoors at Windy Heights Farm in Portugal Cove. (Submitted by Anita Walsh)

From her perspective, people need to embrace the mushrooms.

"It's so underutilized and so misunderstood, that it's vital that we do not miss out on this opportunity to find out more about this amazing organism," Walsh said.

"Mushrooms are medicinal. They're healthy. They're beautiful. And they're tasty all at once."

Walsh added people can build with it, make clothing out of it, use it as medicine or just as a food. It's also versatile when it comes to growing, as it can be grown in doors or foraged in the wild.

"The more you learn about mushrooms, the more you want to learn about mushrooms," she said.

On Tuesday, she said they'll be leading a workshop at the Johnson Geo Centre on mushroom totem growing.

She explained they will have birch trees cut into disks and spores will be placed in the centre. From there, participants will take them home to keep them somewhere dark and warm in order to grow mushrooms.

Walsh hopes people will develop an interest in growing their own mushrooms too.

"We're all about educating others on how to grow your own food, being more aware of nature and what types of foods we can still harvest in nature."

Eastern Ontario farmer discovers new variety of truffle

CBC
Sun, October 22, 2023 


When Lucille Groulx started her truffle farm in Wendover, Ont., in 2015, she was using truffles she had imported from France.

Only later did she discover an indigenous variety of the rare delicacy was already buried on her land.

The native truffle found on the Domaine du Roi farm is the species Tuber rufum, a type of truffle that exists almost everywhere in the world but includes local indigenous varieties.

Originally, Groulx had opted for Burgundy truffles and made the trip to France to bring some back.


Groulx keeps samples of the native truffle to inoculate her trees. (Chantal Dubuc/Radio-Canada)

Burgundy truffles were ideal, Groulx said, as they were well adapted to Ontario's climate and would help protect her oak and hazel trees against disease.

But as she was digging to harvest the fungi, she was surprised to come across a delicious intruder.

"I planted Burgundy truffles, then I found another truffle," she said in French. "You know, you plant red potatoes, you find white potatoes."

Truffle has unique genetic makeup

Groulx, a former pharmacy technician, rushed to have the truffle analyzed to ensure it was edible.

A laboratory at the University of Florida confirmed last January the truffle was not only safe to eat, but also had a unique genetic makeup.

The truffle's DNA sequence had never been identified before, and its natural chemical compounds give it a unique character — and a smell and taste of its own.


Groulx fell in love with the lifestyle associated with truffle harvesting. (Stéphanie Rhéaume/Radio-Canada)

According to Groulx, the fungus is distinguished by smoky notes, reminiscent of bacon.

Its interior is made up of hazelnut-coloured marbling, while its exterior envelope is pale brown in colour, Groulx said.

Maude Lemire-Comeau, president and CEO of Truffles Québec, said the discovery of a truffle native to the area is exciting.

The organization produces truffle trees for all of North America, and Lemire-Comeau sees commercial potential.

Truffle trees are trees that support the growth of truffles, like oak.

Dog helps find the truffles

Lemire-Comeau said truffle spores must already have been present in the Ontario subsoil when she planted the French imports.

"The biggest competitors for truffles when you set up a truffle farm are other types of truffles," Lemire-Comeau said, adding her native truffles are now supplanting the ones from Burgundy.

She's finding many more with the help of her dog, Minoune, whose ability to track down the truffles is "exceptional," according to Groulx.

It takes a lot of patience to spot the powerfully-scented fungi, and Groulx's four-legged companion prefers to hunt mice or eat grass, rather than looking for precious truffles.


Minoune, 7, is an Australian shepherd and truffle hunter. (Stéphanie Rhéaume/Radio-Canada)

"When she starts scratching, you know it's there," she said in French. "As soon as I find it, I put it under her nose so that she can smell what she has found."

Groulx rewards Minoune for each underground treasure she finds.

A native of Alfred and Plantagenet, Ont., Groulx studied dairy production at the Alfred College of Agricultural and Food Technology in the 1980s. She then dreamed of taking over the family land.

Now, she's harvesting the native truffle and incorporating it into cream cheese she makes — further evidence she's "caught the truffle bug."

Chicago’s top fungi guy is out to save the world, one beautiful mushroom at a time

2022/5/23 
© Chicago Tribune

Blue Oyster mushrooms grown at Chicago- based Four Star Mushrooms, on May 17, 2022.

 - Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/TNS

CHICAGO — Contrary to what his profession might lead you to believe, Joe Weber hasn’t always been obsessed with mushrooms.

It’s not that he hated them either. Rather, while growing up in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, he didn’t think about mushrooms at all, beyond the rare occasion they would make an appearance at his family’s dinner table. When they did, he wasn’t impressed.

These days, as founder and CEO of Chicago’s Four Star Mushrooms, an indoor mushroom farm, it’s pretty much all the 26-year-old thinks about. For the past 2 1/2 years, Four Star Mushrooms has been supplying high-quality fungi including lion’s mane, blue oyster, black pearl, pioppino and chestnut, grown under rigorously monitored systems without the use of pesticides or fertilizers, to some of the city’s most ingredient-driven restaurants — think Alinea, Smyth, Oriole and vegan spot Fancy Plants Cafe — as well as retailers Local Foods and WhatsGood Farm Shop.

With the mid-June opening of a 11,000-square-foot state-of-the-art production facility in the West Loop’s Kinzie Corridor that will include grow rooms, a dry lab, cold storage, a retail storefront, a dining concept, and a commercial kitchen and wet lab for research and development, Weber will be spending even more time focused on fungi.

“We’re trying to revolutionize the cultivation of mushrooms and change our food system,” he said of the new facility, which will open in phases with plans to be in full operation by end of the year.

Weber’s interest in ecology began in earnest while at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology. It was there he learned agriculture is the largest cause of habitat and biodiversity loss. “I came at this trying to solve that problem,” he said of Four Star Mushrooms.

Mushrooms, it seems, can do some magical things for the environment. “Mushrooms are this interesting interface between life and death and nutrient recycling,” Weber said of mushrooms’ ability to feed off organic waste material. “At the end of the day, nutrient cycling is this thing that allows our ecosystem to work. If you remove that aspect of it, then everything falls flat. That’s kind of what we are experiencing now across the Great Plains with mono-crop agriculture and increasing fertilizer inputs.”

It’s mushrooms’ earth-friendly capabilities, relative ease of growth, and medicinal and health benefits that motivated Weber to action.

After a mid-2019 mushroom-focused deep dive on YouTube and podcasts and with the help of his entrepreneur-expert dad, Weber launched Four Star Mushrooms inside a rented 400-square-foot space in a multiuse Logan Square building. Soon after, a neighboring space was acquired to keep up with demand from the city’s in-the-know chefs, tripling Four Star’s footprint and increasing output to 500 pounds a week. (Picture 1,000 of those grocery store cartons.)

“At the very beginning of COVID in March 2020, Joe dropped off a flat of mushrooms, and I’ve been ordering them nearly every single week since,” said Fancy Plants Cafe chef and owner Kevin Schuder, himself an aficionado of making tempeh and koji for his vegan restaurant. “While they were always excellent, I love how the quality of the mushrooms has continually improved as Joe continues to find a better method of growing.”

Beyond the thrill of working with some of the city’s best chefs and seeing his handiwork featured on their menus and Instagram accounts, Weber is particularly excited about the multi levels of recycling his mushrooms can generate. Grown with waste products — in this case, soybean hulls and red oak sawdust — the spent substrate is then recycled even further to make a nutrient-rich compost. Early on, Weber began sharing his mushroom compost with Herban Produce, a Garfield Park farm, and the initial results have been promising.

“The faster we can turn this into a valued-added product, the faster we can use it to restore land and grow crops in these vacant lots in the South and West side communities,” he said. “There is a huge opportunity for community gardens there and for food security.”

But in order for that to happen, Four Star needed to up its production considerably. Which brings us back to the new facility. When its fully up and running, it will be able to produce between 8,000 and 12,000 pounds of mushrooms per week, which means more of that nutrient-rich compost will be available too.

To help make his dream a reality, Weber brought on childhood friend and fellow environmentalist Sean DiGioia as Four Star Mushroom’s chief operating officer. With a background in finance and corporate banking, DiGioia is a great complement to Weber’s science knowledge. “I needed to fulfill a greater ‘why’,” DiGioia said of his career pivot.

Additionally, Four Star now has a production manager and a chef, or culinary liaison, as Rudy Carboni’s role has been dubbed. Carboni also functions as Four Star’s delivery driver. “He has worked at Alinea and Esmé and understands how the kitchens work and what the chefs want to see,” DiGioia said.

With the opening of the new facility, there will be plenty more for chefs to see. “This expansion effort will allow us to grow mushrooms to the exact specification of our customers, rain or shine, 365 days a year, as well as bring lesser-known and lesser-grown fungi into the mainstream,” Weber said. “If we could offer, say, morels as fresh and flavorful in December for Christmas and New Year’s menus as in early spring, we think that would be a big value addition for our chef customers.”

It’s not by chance the new Four Star Mushrooms is in the West Loop. “We are two miles from Fulton Market, which is the best strip of restaurants in the country, if not the world, in terms of density,” Weber said.

One of those restaurants is Smyth. When they met, chef and co-owner John Shields had a request for Weber.

“I proposed some challenges I wanted as a chef and cook that I thought would be more interesting than the norm,” said Shields, who is no stranger to getting creative with ingredients for his Michelin two-star restaurant. From that discussion, Weber experimented with growing a miniature golden enoki to fit Shields’ specifications. “It opened up some cool ideas and dialogue and is a win for both for us,” Shields said. “It reinforced our future relationship and things we are going to work on.”

While Four Star’s original indoor farm had plenty of environmental controls in place to regulate and enhance the growth of its mushrooms, the new facility goes much further. “This new space will allow us to precisely control temperature, oxygen, lighting spectrum, (carbon dioxide) and humidity,” Weber said. “All those factors culminate in the way the mushroom reacts.”

And it’s not just culinary professionals who can get in on the fungi fun. Inside the cutting-edge space, visitors will get a front-row seat to the indoor cultivation process showcased through glass walls. “The entire design is behind glass, so people can come in and see exactly where their food is grown and how it is being handled,” DeGioia said. “We are changing the way we look at food transparency and truly letting people see feet in front of them where their next meal is coming from.”

A retail storefront is also in the works as well as a dining experience, utilizing mushrooms grown on-site and specifically curated for their menus. In the wet lab, Four Star will “dabble” with creating prepared food products, and tinctures and teas made from mushrooms.

Mostly, however, Weber envisions Four Star as a source of production for others wanting to explore that growing business. A demo kitchen will give interested chefs a literal taste of what Four Star offers. “We are trying to set ourselves for much success in the future as possible,” Weber said.

Mushroom-haters, consider yourselves warned.

Sean DiGioia, left, and Joe Weber of Four Star Mushrooms at the company’ s indoor growing room in Chicago on May 17, 2022.

 - Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/TNS

He was the Canadian head of the world’s largest pot company. His next big bet? A rare fungus worth $10,000 a kilogram – Toronto Star

 December 18, 2021 

It’s worth tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram, grows out of the corpse of a caterpillar, and for centuries has only been found in the heights of the Himalayas.

Now Bruce Linton, the former CEO of cannabis giant Canopy Growth, has his eye on this fungus, and it may play a key role in his next massive money-maker.

Linton is a founding investor in Mood Science, a young company that’s researching the properties of cordyceps sinensis and other fungi with potential health benefits, dubbed “functional mushrooms.”

Mood Science is launching a line of drops, gummies and more using cordyceps, which the company claims can help with stress, energy and focus. And in the background, Mood Science will also conduct research into psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms,” which some believe are the future of mental health treatment.

Sitting at a table in Strange Love, a white-marbled financial-district cafe run by Mood Science’s sister company that boasts functional-mushroom-boosted coffee, Linton said he was struck not only by the monetary value of cordyceps sinensis, but also by its purported health benefits.

Functional mushrooms are not psychoactive like their magical cousins. Though they have been used in traditional medicine for centuries, research is still thin on their purported health benefits. But many companies in the psychedelics industry are getting into functional mushrooms.

Linton has had his eye on psychedelics for a while. After his departure from Canopy Growth, he told The Canadian Press he saw “untapped value” in the psychedelics industry.

Psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound produced by more than 200 species of fungi, is a long game, Linton told the Star, whereas functional mushrooms can go to market right now because they aren’t psychoactive.

“(Psilocybin will) become increasingly more legal in more places,” he predicts. “So what you want to be able to do is start here in the functional, build your science, your brand, your competencies, and then when you can, you smash them all together.”

Linton built Canopy Growth into the world’s largest cannabis company. But can he do the same with mushrooms? There are a lot more unknowns in the mushroom world, from tight regulations on psychoactive mushrooms, to a lack of scientific research on the growing market of functional mushrooms and fungi including cordyceps sinensis.

The functional and the fun

Functional mushrooms and fungi are finding their way into everything these days, including coffee, skin care, supplements and gummies. These mushrooms are often marketed in North America with a variety of health claims; cordyceps, for example, is often advertised as an energy booster or “Himalayan Viagra.”

Vague promises made about functional mushrooms include improving mental performance, boosting immunity and improving quality of sleep. Comedian turned podcaster Joe Rogan recommends coffee mixed with lion’s mane and chaga. Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has reportedly used skin care made with reishi.

Many of these functional fungi have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years in countries including China, Russia and Japan to treat a variety of ailments.

Psychoactive mushrooms, on the other hand, have been illegal in Canada since 1974, but there’s a growing body of research into their potential use in psychotherapy, including in end-of-life care.

But while functional mushrooms and their magic cousins have very different effects, it’s not uncommon for a psychedelics company to get into the functional — a.k.a. legal — mushroom business, said Simeon Schnapper, general partner at JLS Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in psychedelics and technology.

For example, Silo Wellness, a Canadian-based company that offers psychedelic mushroom retreats (in Jamaica, where it’s legal), recently partnered with the late Bob Marley’s family to release a line of functional mushroom products.

The idea is to establish a brand and a revenue stream for the company, with an eye to a more colourful future, said Schnapper.

Linton was drawn in by the sleek branding of Strange Love, whose financial district location has all the trappings of a trendy cafe: tall windows, white marble, pink and green branding, a neon sign reading “All you need is love.”

He likened the Strange Love cafes to Tokyo Smoke, acquired by Canopy Growth in 2018. Tokyo Smoke started out as a cannabis lifestyle brand, said Linton, gaining market awareness before it was licensed to actually sell cannabis.

Around the same time, Canopy Growth bought ebbu, a Colorado-based hemp research company, adding to the firm’s scientific strength, said Linton. He sees the relationship between Strange Love and Mood Science in the same way, which influenced his decision to invest.

Mood Science founder David Tran was a founding investor in Strange Love, which was started by Chris Nguyen in 2016 and now has three locations in Toronto.

Both Nguyen and Tran come from a sales and marketing background, with Tran most recently in the fashion industry. Neither has a background in science. Strange Love also has a naturopathic doctor on its team.

Tran founded Mood Science during the COVID-19 pandemic after integrating functional mushrooms into his health regimen. He wants Mood Science to be “the Tesla of adaptogens,” and is betting on huge growth in the use of functional fungi in the wellness community.

“I think what we’re doing is really a reaction to the growing trend in the market,” he said. “Consumers want to go more natural, holistic, with their wellness, and they want to get away from pharmaceuticals.”

This isn’t Linton’s first foray into fungi; he is on the advisory board for psychedelics company Red Light Holland, and was on the board for psychedelics company Mind Medicine.

But now he’s interested in bringing the science of mushrooms into people’s everyday lives.

Mood Science is actively looking for acquisitions that can help bolster the science side of the company, said Linton, who is serving as an executive advisor for the company.

“The reason a winner occurs is because they make a number of rapid decisions that get their momentum and rate of acceleration going better than anyone else’s. And I think we’re in that spot,” he said.

‘People want to buy outcomes’

Cordyceps sinensis or Ophiocordyceps sinensis, also known as the caterpillar mushroom, is particularly difficult to cultivate. It grows in the wild, at high-altitude locations in the Himalayas where the parasitic fungus takes over the body of a ghost moth caterpillar, eventually killing it.

Cordyceps sinensis is used in traditional Chinese medicine to boost energy, endurance and libido, among other bodily functions.

The caterpillar mushroom has become increasingly rare due to overharvesting and the changing climate. Decades of attempts to artificially cultivate the growth from the host larvae, called a “fruit body,” were not successful. In recent years, however, researchers in China have succeeded in cultivating it in a lab.

But Mood Science is taking the insect out of the equation, cultivating the mycelia of cordyceps sinensis — like the roots of a plant without the plant itself — in liquid, in a lab in Colorado, Ohio. The result is Cordycell, Mood Science’s proprietary cordyceps sinensis compound. Tran calls it a “molecular mushroom.”

Mood Science is not the first to do this. There are a number of cordyceps sinensis products on the market today that use the mycelia, the vegetative part of a fungus, instead of the fruit body, which is easier to cultivate, said Nicholas Money, a mycologist at Miami University in Ohio.

So what makes Cordycell different from other products?

For one, Mood Science claims it has exclusive access to a strain of cordyceps sinensis belonging to Penn State University, a claim the Star was unable to verify via Penn State.

Tran said Cordycell has up to 15 times more sought-after derivatives of the fungi — such as cordycepin — than other products on the market today, and said Mood Science is able to “formulate clinically dosed products that help consumers with focus, energy, better sleep, and supporting stress.”

Money said while it’s certainly possible that Cordycell has significantly more cordycepin, further research is needed to determine cordycepin’s properties.

In fact, while Mood Science and many other natural wellness companies say mushrooms and fungi have medicinal properties, there is currently no widely accepted research to support these claims.

Mood Science bases its claims on the traditional uses of functional mushrooms, as well as some scientific studies done on their effects.

There’s more research on some mushrooms than others, but overall, the scientific community is still in the early days of exploring functional mushrooms, said Money; good research on the real effects of cordyceps sinensis and other functional fungi is “almost nonexistent” at this point, he said.

“I’m not saying that it doesn’t have these properties,” Money said. “But at the moment, this is faith-based medicine rather than medicine for which there’s a strong scientific rationale.”

Mood Science has partnered with an Ontario lab that specializes in testing cannabis and is currently developing protocols for testing Cordycell and other fungi to learn more about their properties.

Cordycell will officially launch in 2022, said Tran, in an array of products such as gummies and drops.

Mood Science is focusing on selling and researching functional mushrooms for now, but it also has two Health Canada licenses to conduct research into psilocybin.

“Not only are we gonna have the baseline infrastructure and all the fancy equipment to analyze the functional mushrooms, but we can analyze … psychedelic mushrooms,” said Tran. “We don’t know where the industry will go. But we think that knowledge will be valuable.”

One major claim made by the Mood Science team has yet to be proven, and that’s cordyceps sinensis’ potential use in treating mild depression, which as of yet has very little research to back it up.

Tran hinted that research into cordyceps sinensis’ potential mental health effects could begin in 2022.

Much like with cannabis, “people want to buy outcomes,” said Linton.

“I just think science is going to be a bigger part of this than people expect.”

This isn’t ‘Cannabis 3.0’

Science aside, Linton is betting money on the future success of the mushroom business, from the functional to the magical. But experts in emerging industries say it may be a long road ahead.

Michael Armstrong, an associate professor in the Goodman School of Business at Brock University, said while some parallels can be drawn between the cannabis industry and the psychoactive mushroom industry, there are also some key differences.

Far fewer Canadians use mushrooms recreationally, he said. So while he thinks it’s possible that psilocybin will become more widely available for medical purposes, Armstrong isn’t putting money on them being legalized recreationally.

“It’s not going to be cannabis 3.0,” he said.

But it’s not a bad idea for psychedelics companies to get into functional mushrooms, Armstrong said, so they can still get to know what customers are looking for, and build brand recognition.

It helps on the revenue side, too — Mood Science isn’t profitable right now, but Strange Love is, according to Tran.

Armstrong said the legalization of cannabis in Canada has made people more open-minded about other natural products, including previously banned substances.

“We legalized it and the world didn’t fall apart,” he said. “What else have we banned and have not studied?”

Schnapper agrees that magic mushrooms are on their way to being used in medical settings, but he also thinks that the growing popularity of microdosing magic mushrooms could signal a potential recreational market for psilocybin.

As for functional mushrooms, the more companies that get into this market, the more consumers will demand research to back up claims, said Schnapper.

The functional mushroom play has a lot of upfront costs and it’s a crowded market, but if it’s done well, it is a good revenue opportunity to help fund the science side of a business, he said.

Linton said Mood Science is moving fast, despite difficulty raising money in such an evolving market.

Nevertheless, the company has managed to attract investment, said Linton, including from Canadian fashion designer and entrepreneur Joe Mimran.

Linton said the legalization of cannabis has paved the way for psilocybin, which he predicts could be approved for medical use in five years or less, even if recreational psilocybin is a long way off.

Now, about a year into his investment, Linton is feeling good about his decision.

If he wasn’t, “I wouldn’t have done this interview,” said Linton.