MycoTechnology, a food and agriculture technology company, has developed a natural food processing platform that uses proprietary cultured mushrooms for improving flavor profiles of foods and beverages such as chocolate, coffee and tea. Blue Pacific Flavors is known for its line of fruit flavors under its Farm Stand Whole Fruit Flavors portfolio.
Per the deal, Blue Pacific Flavors will distribute MycoTechnology’s entire product portfolio and support the development of new products using MyoTechnology’s patent-pending platform with its global manufacturing, sales force, and large R&D and food application teams.
MyoTechnology CEO Alan Hahn said the impetus for the partnership was to help facilitate the process of getting MycoTechnology’s transformative food processing platform into a wide range of finished products.
“We started taking a look at what we do best, which is innovate on ingredients, and it became clear as we looked at the market that we needed to find a thought leader to partner with and bring our technology to market,” Hahn told FoodNavigator-USA. “Blue Pacific has a really good handle on who their customers are and what they want, as well as the industry as a whole.
“From their perspective, there’s a real value-add for a flavor company that can find innovation in marketplace, and play around with different formulations to deliver complete solutions to brands.”
MycoTechnology launched its latest such innovation—MycoSmooth tea, a beta glucan-enhanced fermented green tea—at Expo West earlier this month, drawing attention from major beverage companies worldwide, Hahn noted.
Using its patented MycoSmooth process, MycoTechnology infuses green tea with beta glucan-rich Cordyceps mushrooms to remove bitterness for an antioxidant-rich, anti-inflammatory end product with a floral aroma and taste that doesn’t require sugar.
“You don’t have to start with a high-grade tea to get the benefits of our process,” Hahn said. “We’re delivering this type of healthy food to marketplace at incredible price that everybody can afford and still get health benefits.”