The Better Meat Co, now doing business as BMC Ingredients, expects to begin commercial-scale production of its mycelium ingredients with a partner in India in Q2, 2027 after completing three 100,000-liter fermentation runs and securing its first seven-figure supply contract. The California-based startup, which initially developed ingredients from Neurospora crassa fungi for combining with meat and plant-based meat, has since expanded its portfolio to include powdered mycelium for protein bars, shakes, noodles, and other applications, opening up a significantly larger addressable market, says cofounder and CEO Paul Shapiro. The developments come amid a brutal shakeout in the alt protein sector, in which a litany of well-funded players have struggled to translate promising tech into commercially viable businesses. In the biomass fermentation space, Meati spectacularly imploded last year; Nature’s Fynd is phasing out its consumer branded business and exploring higher-value products in biopharma, alt-leather and food ingredients; and ENOUGH Food has been reviewing strategic options including a potential sale, partnership or repurposing of its assets. But BMC Ingredients, which has pursued an asset-light approach to scaling production via its partner in India, is still standing, Shapiro told AgFunderNews. “We’ve spent years getting fungi to eat sugar and make protein. Now we’re teaching them the harder trick: doing it at a commercial scale at a price that makes food companies want to buy it. We aspire to become the first truly global mycelium ingredients company—the Cargill of mycelium ingredients.” ‘Massive de-risking’ Industrial-scale fermentation facilities cannot easily accommodate different organisms and processes without significant modification, explained Shapiro. “So even if you find a facility that wants to work with you. You still need to put in a lot of resources into making it suitable for you. We’ve done an enormous amount of tech transfer, including running successfully three 100,000 liter fermentations. “So this is massive de-risking. Nobody has ever fermented Neurospora crassa in that large of a vessel before.” High-protein, high-fiber whole food BMC—which has secured the regulatory thumbs up for its wares in India, the US, Canada, and Singapore—has two platforms: 👉 Rhiza Tex: a textured mycelium product that can be added to ground meat and plant-based meat, enables firms to improve nutrition by cutting sat fat and calories and adding fiber and protein; boost yields and reduce cookout loss; and enhance flavor and texture due to its oil- and water-holding capacity. 👉Rhiza Pro: a powdered mycelium product targeting protein-rich smoothies, shakes, bars, and baked goods containing 51g protein per 100g of dry product. Notably, BMC’s new seven-figure contract is for Rhiza Pro, which Shapiro says has attracted growing interest from manufacturers looking for alternatives to whey protein, the price of which has gone through the roof in recent years. According to Shapiro, Rhiza Pro has adequate solubility for target applications and a relatively neutral flavor that performs well in chocolate-flavored applications. While the primary nutrients of interest are protein, fiber, iron, potassium and zinc, Rhiza ingredients also contain spermidine and ergothioneine, which are attracting interest in the longevity space, said Shapiro. BMC has also worked with researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a study exploring Rhiza Pro as an egg replacer in baked goods, with a paper submitted for peer review but not yet published. “The biggest change for us isn’t even the scaling,” said Shapiro. “The biggest change for us is this expansion of the addressable market. We are realizing far that this ingredient can do far more than what we initially envisioned.” Meat applications: From green premium to ‘green discount’ By using Rhiza Tex in ground meat applications, customers can meet ESG goals and cut saturated fat and sodium while boosting fiber, said Shapiro. But ultimately, it saves them money: “Most of the time, there’s a green premium. In our case, there’s a green discount.” While firms have historically turned to TVP (textured vegetable protein – typically soy) as meat extenders, they are typically made from soy, and come with an allergen warning, and can generally only be used at relatively low inclusion rates (10-15%) before causing sensory issues. Rhiza Tex, by contrast, is not a major allergen, has a more neutral taste, and can be incorporated at higher inclusion levels (20-33%), he claimed. A recent change to ingredient labeling requirements in the US also means BMC can utilize a more consumer-friendly name on meat labels, he added. Previously, the ingredient had to be identified as Neurospora crassa mycoprotein, but under the proposed revision, companies can label it as “mycelium.” A brutal shakeout According to Shapiro, who has spent several years in the alt protein arena and written a book on cultivated meat, “My belief has always been that if we want to feed humanity without destroying the planet, we need to go big with microbial farming.” But it’s not for the faint-hearted, he observed. “When we spoke after the Series A last year, I compared this to Squid Game. I feel that even more now. I feel like the main character: every episode he just keeps going and everybody’s dying around him. You see all this carnage but you keep moving forward. I’m also not aware of another company in our space that’s never done layoffs.” He added: “I just think the biomanufacturing space in particular needs more wins, we will be one of them. I really think that our b2b business model and our capex- and asset-light approach to scaling is going to help our company survive and thrive.” Further reading: Black Sheep Foods bets on ‘TVP 2.0’ as hybrid meat gains traction Hybrid meat for the win: JOYN Foods finds sweet spot in alt-protein market, expects to be EDITDA positive in early 2027 Quorn Foods’ UK retail recovery gathers pace, but foodservice ‘likely to get worse before it gets better’ Millow raises $2.3m, gears up for commercial launch of minimally processed alt meat The post Better Meat Co targets large-scale production in India in Q2, 2027 amid brutal mycoprotein shakeout appeared first on AgFunderNews.
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