How To Know If You’re Buying Real Mushroom Extracts

Wellness mushrooms, sometimes also called functional mushrooms or medicinal mushrooms, have a long history of use in Asia and particularly in China. One of the most revered mushrooms, Reishi, has over 2,000 years of recorded use in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) where it is called the ‘mushroom of immortality’.  

Over 50 mushrooms are included in TCM to correct major imbalances in the body which manifest as a multitude of diseases.

With such a serious respect for the value of mushrooms, the Chinese are dedicated to growing the highest quality of mushroom fruiting bodies, the part of the mushroom that grows above ground and that we commonly eat.

Mycelium, the roots of mushrooms that grow underground, are not part of TCM’s long history of use but have in recent times become studied for their health benefits. A number of USA companies began growing mycelium and selling it in place of fruiting bodies because mycelium is faster and more economic to grow than fruiting bodies. Typically, companies aren’t making extracts of mycelium either which also makes it cheaper to produce.

 

The benefit of extracting mushrooms

Fruiting bodies of mushrooms are best consumed as a water and/or alcohol extract in order to make their wellness compounds absorbable. Beta-glucans, the best known active ingredient in wellness mushrooms, is bound inside a fiber called chitin which is not digestible by humans. In order to release the Beta-glucans, mushrooms like reishi, lion’s mane or turkey tail are extracted with hot water first and then sometimes also with alcohol which is called a “dual extract”.

Extraction also concentrates these beneficial active ingredients to increase their potency. It used to be that brands would state the ratio of an extract like this: 4:1 which means 4 parts of mushrooms to 1 part of solvent such as water. Now, however, brands are not giving this extract ratio on their labels for two reasons.

First, the extracts may only be pure powder, not actual extracts. A very popular US brand lists their extracts as 1:1 but in fact these are just pure powdered mushrooms. No extracts are made at a single concentration strength because the cost of making an extract is too high. Extracts have to be concentrated in order for them to be profitable for the manufacturer.

Second, in order to combat fraudulent claims about extract potency, authentic mushroom extract suppliers now report the level of the Beta-glucans in the extract to show how much of the active ingredient it contains. They may mix various extracts together to get the desired level and thus the ratio of the extract may not be fixed. It is much better to know how much of an active ingredient is in an extract than to know how concentrated the raw material is in it.

How to tell if a mushroom extract is real 

If you buy a mushroom extract like Reishi or Lion’s Mane from a brand on Amazon, you can check the label to see if the quantity or the content of the active ingredient is stated. For instance, the level of Beta-glucans would say “Beta-glucans >25%”. If nothing is mentioned, it is doubtful that the extract is real or has not been adulterated. Brands that stand behind an extract they are selling will proudly make such statements. Of course the higher price will also reflect its value.

Only a laboratory can verify the actual level of an active ingredient, but there are ways to test a mushroom extract at home to determine if it is in fact an extract by tasting it.

The most popular cheap substance to dilute mushroom extracts with is maltodextrin, a type of dextrose or sugar that converts rapidly to glucose in the intestines. It tastes very sweet. Mushrooms don’t taste sweet at all. If the mushroom extract you bought tastes sweet, it’s got maltodextrin diluting it.

Brands are adulterating mushroom extracts up to 80-90% with maltodextrin to make huge profits. Consider this: Real mushroom extracts cost at least $25 per pound or more depending on how potent the extract is. That cost is before importing it, packaging it and shipping it to you. (That is also before the new tariffs on Chinese products take effect.) Most brands on Amazon sell 1 lb of a mushroom extract for $25-$35. Since Amazon takes roughly half the retail price in fees and shipping costs, that means the price of the extract would have to be less than $12/lb. It is impossible to buy a pound of unadulterated mushroom extract at such a low price. 

An example of fraud being committed by a brand that sells thousands of bags of Chaga per month on Amazon claims that it is a 100:1 extract. First off, you can’t actually make an extract at such a large concentration as 100 parts of an ingredient can’t fit into 1 part of solvent. Even if you could, imagine the cost. It would have to sell for thousands of dollars!

How to tell if an “extract” is really just powdered mushrooms

So if this so-called 100:1 product isn’t an extract, what is it? It doesn’t taste sweet so it isn’t a diluted extract either.

Here’s how you can tell it’s just a powdered mushroom. Powdered mushrooms don’t dissolve in water. Extracts do since they have been extracted in water and then spray dried. They can be reconstituted in water by simply stirring them into it.

Take a glass cup and mix a tablespoon of the mushroom product into 8 ounces of hot water. Then wait 5-10 minutes. If you see lots of sediment settling in the bottom of your cup, you bought powdered mushrooms. If the product remains mixed into the liquid, you bought a real extract. But make sure it doesn’t taste sweet or it’s been adulterated. Maltodextrin is highly soluble in water which is why it is used as a ‘filler’ or adulterant.

Another test to determine if you bought an extract versus a powder, is to leave a couple of tablespoons of the product in a pile on a piece of paper exposed to air. Extracts are hydroscopic, meaning that they draw moisture out of the air. The pile will turn hard in a day or so when sitting exposed to oxygen. Powders will still be completely loose. You will be able to pick up a pinch of powder with your fingers without any problem just like you could pick up wheat flour.

The truth about mushroom coffees

I was shocked to learn during my trip to China last fall about the rampant adulteration and fraud common among mushroom coffee brands. Most all of them are packed by co-manufacturers who buy the ingredients for the brands. It just so happened that a team member here at Teeccino discovered who is the co-packer for the largest mushroom coffee brand in the US. This brand is exclusively packed by the co-manufacturer and sales of their instant mushroom coffee exceeds $300 million dollars a year!

The co-manufacturer sent us samples of all the mushroom extracts they provide. The prices they quoted are rock bottom. Sure enough, the “extracts” tasted super sweet. They had so much maltodextrin in them that they didn’t even get slightly hard when exposed to oxygen. No wonder this brand can spend millions of dollars a month advertising its products. Between its high retail price and the low cost of its ingredients, a mega ad budget is affordable.

Sadly, I think the effects people feel when they drink these mushroom coffees is coming from caffeine, not from any wellness benefits of the mushrooms. Most of these brands have lots of other ingredients in them like coconut milk or protein powders, so the caffeine is less than a typical cup of coffee. The sweetness is also hidden by the flavor of other ingredients.

Maybe people are simply feeling better because they’re consuming less caffeine. They are still getting the effects of caffeine for increased alertness and suppressed fatigue but they attribute it to mushroom health benefits.

The genuine mushroom extracts we buy for Teeccino

You can buy pure and genuine mushroom extracts made to a very high quality standard from China. For the Chinese, medicinal or wellness mushrooms aren’t a fad. Their use is taken very seriously because they are relied upon to treat life-threatening illnesses.

I know there is so much press about bad quality standards from China but what I’ve learned is that the real problem is foreign buyers demanding such low prices that adulteration is the only way to satisfy them.

The mushroom extracts we use in Teeccino’s Mushroom Adaptogen blends including our newest Miraculous Mushrooms Adapt & Protect are made from 100% mushrooms without any maltodextrin or any other adulterants. Taste them and they taste like mushrooms. Put them in hot water and they dissolve. Leave them out in the air and they get hard. Test them at an independent laboratory and the Beta-glucan content matches the specification sheet provided by the Chinese company that grows and extracts them.

Our extracts are 25-35% Beta-glucans depending on the mushroom but until now we haven’t labeled it. Just when I decided we should change our packaging to let our customers know about the potency of our mushroom extracts, the biggest problem to ever face our Company has occurred.

The Trump administration’s tariffs are hitting Teeccino hard. We can’t replace our ingredients with USA grown ingredients as the plants either don’t grow here or can’t be harvested here. We just paid 10% more for a container of chicory which is a big hit to our cash flow as well as our profit margin. With 145% tariffs on Chinese products, it is impossible to import more mushroom extracts. No company here in the US extracts mushroom fruiting bodies. There are US mushroom growers but not extractors. What to do?

All I can say is we’re praying that these tariffs get removed. Teeccino is hardly alone. So many companies large and small are in a dilemma about what to do. Do we raise prices now to reflect the new reality or wait to see if the tariffs go away?

Our decision today is to keep selling our products at the affordable price we try our best to maintain so everyone can drink Teeccino. 

We have enough of our mushroom extracts to last us a few months. 

Let’s all ask for a resolution to be enacted soon so that we can all keep enjoying the health-giving botanicals and mushrooms we get from around the world!