Company Using Fungi To Make Innovative Products

Company Using Fungi To Make Innovative Products Companies worldwide are turning to fungi to solve problems and develop new products, from building insulation to luxury imitation leather. Ecovative uses mycelium (the underground part of fungi) to make everything from a bacon substitute to imitation leather, packaging material and more. These aren’t “someday” products. Ecovative is already converting over 10 million tons of wood chips annually into high-value mycelium. It has tested more than 800 strains and mutants of mycelium, evaluated more than 200 substrates (feedstocks), and developed 40 supplements to boost growth and health.  It’s working with Canadian Whitecrest Mushrooms to cultivate its own mycelium and has production facilities in the Netherlands and Green Island, N.Y. Company founder Eben Bayer is very open about his goal of replacing animal agriculture with mycelium. MyBacon is just the first of his planned food industry products. It’s already available in more than 1,200 grocery stores and expects to more than triple that number by the end of the year. Ecovative established a subsidiary, MyForest Foods, to market it. A second product, MyPulled Pork, has already been launched. In the case of MyBacon, slabs of mycelium form as oyster mushroom spawn grow on a special blend of wood chips in indoor vertical farms. Forest-like conditions, including dew, mist and a gentle breeze, are used to encourage mycelium to develop from thread-like fibers into large sheets. After 12 days, the long sheets of mycelium are cut into smaller rectangles. These are then sliced like bacon from pork belly. The slices take a quick soak in a brine bath of sugar, salt and natural flavors. The slices are coated with coconut oil before being packaged. Once in the kitchen, the slices are pan-fried until they’re plank-like and ready to eat. The Forager division aims to achieve the same success in the leather industry. One of its products is AirLoom Hides, high-performance botanical hides with naturally grown textures, customizable colors, finishes and thicknesses. Forager is working with Ecco Leather, a tanning division of the Danish footwear company Ecco. The goal is to develop and commercialize its leather-like products for shoes, clothing and accessories. Bayer recently described the leather-making process in an interview with Ag Funding News. Using a different species of fungi from MyBacon, the company grows the spawn into 50-ft. long sheets of mycelium. After some dewatering, the hide is shipped to tanneries. “We have a similar tensile strength and similar look and feel to calf hides,” he says. Another Ecovative division, Mushroom Packaging, developed a custom-molded, cost-competitive packaging material. MycoComposite is thermally insulating and water-resistant, made solely from mycelium and hemp hurd. It’s also home compostable within just 45 days. The company holds over 40 patents worldwide for these and other products. Unlike almost all other companies that protect their intellectual property, Ecovative follows the Open Source Initiative. This includes providing unrestricted access to Ecovative’s patents to various companies that collaborate on ideas and R&D efforts, encouraging open innovation.  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ecovative, 70 Cohoes Ave., Green Island, N.Y. 12183 (info@ecovativedesign.com; www.ecovative.com).

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