Mushroom manufacturer warns of regulation worries

CBD and mushroom supplement manufacturing and consulting firm Nootro Group is the only British Retail Consortium (BRC)-certified manufacturer in oils, capsules and powders—a certificate that guarantees third-party assured quality and traceability.

The firm’s founder and CEO Cary Holmes said he launched the company in 2021 after he “saw an emerging category with a true lack of experts and know-how in supplement manufacturing.”

He was ahead of the curve with his decision to work with both mushrooms and CBD as he said he always felt the two ingredients worked in synergy. But discussing the current trend of CBD brands moving into mushrooms as a result of restrictive Novel Foods regulations, he voiced concerns about the potential for low quality me-too products.

“I believe what [some CBD brands] have done with their mushroom supplements is tremendous, but there are a lot of brands moving into this category now, and in order to enter the market and compete, they either have to undercut on price or outperform on quality, and most are not focused on quality,” he said.

His concern is when other natural and effective nootropic remedies have gone under the regulatory microscope, this has led to country-wide bans as a result of studies involving low-quality products.

“I think as the industry grows, so will the attention, and my fear is the powers that be will start to get involved, like we have started to see with ashwagandha​," he said. “The problem is these are really efficacious alternatives to pharmaceuticals and the powers that be have suddenly started to take note.”

He pointed out the key argument by ashwagandha experts defending the safety of the ingredient is that many studies with negative findings have been conducted on products that may be poor quality or contaminated with other ingredients. Another issue, he noted, is that regulators are not botanical experts and do not understand how an extract from a different part of the plant can hugely impact its interaction with the host.

He added that there is a chance of this sort of confusion happening with mushrooms.

“There’s a lack of integrity and transparency with a lot of these me-too products so that’s a worry," he said. “If there’s tainted mushroom supplements on the market it could be that one person who's in the wrong brings down the whole market. There’s a reason I broke my back to get BRC certified—it’s because I wanted to give people trust.”

Fighting for more than 10 mg ​

Speaking about the recently set 10 mg acceptable daily intake (ADI) for CBD​ (which came with advice from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that consumers would need to check labels and monitor intake for themselves as companies were not allowed to change their products during the Novel Foods process), Holmes struggles to accept the justification for this level given the science that is now sitting on the desk of regulators. 

“The only way we can work with this 10 mg limit is if customer take no notice of it,” he said.

The FSA has said it will update the advice if new evidence indicates a change is needed.

Holmes expects there will be the need for a two-tier system which allows for some products to be marketed with a scientifically justified higher daily dose.  

“There is data which supports a higher ADI, and we are hopeful that the FSA will look at individual dossiers and make scientific judgements on there individual merits,” he said.