Advancing mushroom research and awareness with the Functional Mushroom Council

A new trade organization has formed to represent the interests of functional mushroom growers and brands. A coalition of North American mushroom businesses, the Functional Mushroom Council (FMC) debuted at SupplySide Global, welcoming a wave of brands, growers, suppliers, and experts committed to advancing the functional mushroom industry.

According to the Council's press release, FMC's mission is to:

• To foster rigorous research that illuminates the benefits of functional mushrooms
• To educate the public and industry on their health and wellness potential
• To support the success of growers, suppliers, and brands throughout North America.

“People have benefitted from functional mushrooms for thousands of years, and North American growers have been cultivating them for decades. What’s changed in recent years is the rapid expansion of capacity and scientific investment to keep up with consumer demand and expectations,” said Julie Daoust, PhD, chair of the Functional Mushroom Council and chief science officer at M2 Ingredients, in a press release. “As the industry has grown, so have concerns around ingredient quality and labeling accuracy. Today, we’re working together to establish North America as the global leader in the highest-quality, most scientifically backed functional mushrooms — and to champion real transparency across the entire supply chain.”

“In my expert opinion, the best products are formulated incorporating mushroom mycelium grown in the U.S. where we are held to higher standards of quality, sustainability, and care,” added Paul Stamets, member and founder of Fungi Perfecti. Other founding members of the Council include: Monterey Mushrooms, Aloha Medicinals, Mycopia, and Far West Fungi.

“Until recently, many brands had to source their functional mushroom ingredients from imported or foreign suppliers,” said Amir Karian, vice-Chair of FMC and director of Monterey Nutra, in a statement. “But that dynamic has changed. North America’s leading growers — the same innovators who came together to form the Functional Mushroom Council — have rapidly scaled their capacity, quality systems, and scientific infrastructure to meet the needs of this booming category. Today, brands no longer need to rely on overseas suppliers. They can partner directly with North American growers who produce the highest-quality, organically grown functional mushrooms in the world, backed by unmatched transparency, consistency, and innovation.”

Looking ahead at 2026, FMC has announced that it will be releasing new research on quality standards, bioactive compound profiles, and the health impact of full–life-cycle, whole-mushroom products. This research, according to FMC will clearly demonstrate the stronger and more consistent benefits of North American–grown mushrooms compared with ingredients imported from other regions.
Nutritional Outlook spoke with Julie Daoust. Daoust explains that the goals of the organization are the raise awareness around functional mushrooms ingredients in North America as well as pool resources to advance scientific research that helps to improve quality standards. Read the interview below:

Sebastian Krawiec: Can you tell me about how the Functional Mushroom Council (FMC) came to fruition?

Julie Daoust: So, the council really came together just over a year ago. There was a mushroom summit and a number of different growers from North America got together and got to talking. We're technically competitors, but all very passionate about mushrooms, all very involved in developing new products, developing quality standards, and lots of strong opinions and passion within that group. It really occurred to us that we were doing a lot of the same projects, but in isolation. For example, we’re all looking into a method for understanding and quantifying the bioactives in lion's mane, but we were doing that independently, spending our money independently. We're seeing a lot of different brands, a lot of different consumers asking for some of that information, and that's why these projects were part of our strategic plans, but there wasn't that level of collaboration that would really bring the industry forward, and frankly, it was a little bit wasteful because a lot of us also had the same approach. So, we were investing with different labs on the same project, and we thought, wouldn't it be great if, as an industry group, we looked at the gaps in research, gaps in quality standards, in education, and work together to make sure that we progress the industry and ultimately make sure there are safer, better, higher quality products delivered to the consumers on the market?

Then the other piece was really an education piece. A lot of people are interested in functional mushrooms, but the way we talk about them sometimes is just complicated and confusing. For a consumer that's not really savvy, understanding the difference between full life cycle or full spectrum, or mycelium and fruiting body can be difficult, and it's easy to lose someone that's not necessarily passionate about the topic and they're just looking for a cognitive health type supplement ingredient. So, for us to really align on terms, on lexicon, on messaging, and try to develop research-based messaging on the benefits of mushroom ingredients and really celebrate the diversity of the different ingredients, we felt we could do that better through a non-profit organization like FMC than individually.

SK: Who can join an organization? What kind of membership are you looking for?

JD: Well, we have a lot of different membership levels. So obviously, if you're a North American grower, please reach out. We'd love to have you as part of the organization. If you're a brand looking to get involved in research, education around functional mushrooms, even if you don't yet source mushroom ingredients from North America, but are interested to get involved, we'd love to have an opportunity to have you be part of the Council. Any labs or researchers that are interested in furthering research in functional mushrooms are also welcome to join. We have also membership for the different mushroom festival or mycological society organizations that are around the country. And we have some student memberships as well. As long as you bring a passion for functional mushroom and an interest in getting involved and furthering this really exciting industry, we'd welcome you.

SK: What are some gaps and challenges facing the functional mushroom industry that the Functional Mushroom Council would like to raise awareness about?

JD: First, there's lots of interest in functional mushrooms, but still a lot of people don't know about them. So, we’d like to raise awareness just overall to the benefits of functional mushrooms, to the fact that there's a really diverse group of organisms within the kingdom of fungi that have real functional benefits and that we can grow those species in America. I think that's just the baseline, that's what we're trying to improve overall and get people excited about those ingredients.

Another piece of our mission is to really elevate the quality standards of mushroom ingredients through the practices that we have here in the U.S. And making folks aware of why sourcing U.S. ingredients can be important for quality consideration. We also want to raise the methods, the validity of the methods that are used to test these types of ingredients. And we also want to celebrate the diversity of different products. So whether it's the different species that are grown and sold here in North America, whether they're whole mushroom extracts made of mycelium, a fruiting body, or both, and really showcase the benefit and potential and celebrate that diversity.

SK: One of the Council's goals is also to advance the science of mushroom ingredients. I know you mentioned advancing quality standards before, but can you elaborate some more on what kind of scientific research the Council would like to pursue or collaborate on?

JD: So, I mentioned the need for more methods to test for functional mushrooms. There's a couple of issues at hand. One is around biomarkers and quantification of those biomarkers. Because mushrooms are very diverse, each species has specific markers that can be looked at. This is further complicated by the fact that there's a lot of research needed still to understand which marker may be most relevant for bioactivity. For example, in lion's mane, you have families of diterpene compounds that are considered to have nootropic activity. So you have the erinacines, the hericenones, and there's a whole alphabet of bioactives within these chemical classes. So, how do you best select for the right bioactive and what's the best method to then quantify those to understand the consistency of the product and its nature? And so we, as the FMC, our membership is represented is the AOAC BIDSI (Botanical Ingredients and Dietary Supplement Integrity) initiative, where we have a functional fungi initiative and a focus this year on lion's mane and developing an SMPR or call for method for lion's mane and its bioactive markers. So, that was one of our first efforts to collectively participate in that and provide data to support that sound method development through that initiative. We're also involved in the AOAC initiatives for next year. So, there's a focus again on more methods for bioactive quantification around reishi.

The other part that's been really challenging for all of us in this industry is ID methods in complex mixtures down to the fungal life stage. So, essentially trying to distinguish between mycelium and fruiting body in a finished product complex matrix. There's really a gap in methodologies there, so we're focused on developing methods around that for the moment.

SK: Any notable trends you've observed in functional mushrooms in terms of popular fungi or, you know, preferred health benefits in the marketplace?

JD: Well, I think mushroom coffee is definitely a big product application for mushrooms. It's a really interesting trend. I think it really started out of consuming chaga originally, right? Chaga is a very interesting species that grows on trees as a conch, which is essentially a blend of tree tissue and mycelium. It's a very hard, woody substance that was then ground and served in a coffee-like manner. It was a decoction in hot water with some bitterness and dark color like coffee. Obviously, that evolved. And now in the marketplace, very few products actually contain chaga. They're made out of coffee or some are coffee replacements. So you have brands like Mud Water that have cacao and spices and are coffee replacement products with mushrooms. And then you have other brands like Ryze, for example, which is coffee plus mushrooms. And so in both those cases, I think the idea of having more energy and focus is a big driving principle behind the products and the consumer need.

People report having more of a focused energy than with coffee. I think some people are worried about having jitters or digestive issues that coffee can lead to. So, mushrooms like cordyceps and lion's mane that have shown benefits in both digestive health as prebiotic ingredients that can help with having a healthy colon lining and help with a healthy digestion and support a healthy microbiome. And then also with both lion's mane and cordyceps, there's energy benefits. So more around metabolic energy that can also support that consumer need around that mental energy and focus benefits that's sought after. So I don't know that they are necessarily a new trend, but definitely the fastest growing trend in the mushroom industry currently and something we continue to see interest in.