Kääpä Biotech responds to rising mushroom demand with Nutralliance North America distribution agreement

30 Sep 2020 --- Finnish mycological specialist Kääpä Biotech will have its Nordic Mushrooms extracts line exclusively distributed by Nutralliance. The nutritional ingredients supplier will distribute Kääpä Biotech’s portfolio of nationally grown organic chaga, reishi, shiitake, cordyceps and lion’s mane in powder and liquid extract form in North America.

“The interest in mushroom products in the North American market started some 30 years ago,” Kääpä Biotech CEO Eric Puro tells NutritionInsight. 

“There is an increasing trend in health-benefiting supplements in the US market and medicinal mushroom products are among the top three category drivers in the food supplement industry today. We are now seeing this trend also moving to Europe,” he notes.

Supply chain transparency
Ensuring full traceability and transparency is of the “utmost importance” for Kääpä Biotech. It took the company three “very cost-intensive” years to secure a sustainable and ethical supply chain that meets its high-quality standards. 

Click to EnlargeUltrasonic Assisted Extraction technology used in Kääpä Biotech’s headquarters.“We believe that this is more important than ever and these are driving concerns for the end customers,” Puro details. 

“To adequately fulfill modern North American consumers’ desires for superior quality in efficacy, safety and traceability as well as sustainability, we wanted to ensure our mycological expert source was able to put check marks in all those columns. KÄÄPÄ Biotech is that resource,” adds Brian Salerno, CEO of Nutralliance.

Puro further asserts how ingredient origins are increasingly becoming important to market, pointing to the company’s emphasis on its ingredients’ 100 percent Finnish origins. 

Kääpä Biotech also uses Ultrasonic Assisted Extraction technology that utilizes a combination of hot water and alcohol extraction. This method ensures the extraction of the desired bioactive compounds in each mushroom. 

Mushroom boom
Puro sees the mushroom market growing at an annual 10 to 15 percent growth rate. Amid the current pandemic, the interest in immunity supporting products has increased significantly. “We are expecting this trend to continue in the future,” Puro foretells.

Click to EnlargeFrom spore to shipment, Kääpä Biotech places a heavy emphasis on supply chain traceability.

Other businesses are also looking to mushrooms for immunity and wellness functionality. With immune health “definitely top of mind this year”, Unibar launched Maitake Pt78, an immunomodulating mushroom extract. 

In other fungi moves, Spore Life Sciences, a US wellness company focused on functional mushroom formulations, recently released its debut collection of supplements geared toward immunity, energy, focus and sleep.

Meanwhile, Canada-based Rritual is planning to launch three premium plant-based, vegan mushrooms and adaptogen enhanced elixirs.

By Anni Schleicher

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