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What if someone told you that mushrooms could help like kale?
What if it could make coffee palatable to you?
For some people, the bitterness of foods like dark greens or coffee is part of its attraction. But for some reason, it’s what’s standing between them and a nutritious food or a caffeine fix.
And now, this mushroom-based food powder is trying to make bitterness disappear for those who need it.
It’s called MycoZyme powder, and it’s being developed by MycoTechnology, a Denver startup.
This powder, when sprinkled into any food, can inhibit bitter tastes in foods to make them more palatable.
It’s not known yet whether the discovery is legitimate, but if it is, it could be the first powder of its kind.
The powder uses none of the parts of the mushroom that we eat. It uses the part undergrown, where it grows. It’s called the mycelium, and it decomposes plant material in soil and breaks nutrients down into smaller units.
It does this with foods as well, getting rid of unwanted nutrients like chlorogenic acids and metabolizing glucose and nitrogen.
If this were proven, food manufacturers could apply this to foods and sell them in their tastier, more nutritious forms.
One thing that this product hopes to tackle is stevia, the all-natural sweetener that would be perfect—were it not for the bitter metallic aftertaste. MycoTechnology has filed a patent for the use of MycoZyme with stevia, and if passed, we would have a form of stevia that retains all of the sweetness with none of the bitterness. It’ll be cheaper too, since it doesn’t have to be processed as much.
One expert, Dr. John Coupland, says that this powder could be incredibly useful, saying, “Many drugs and healthful ingredients…are quite bitter, and bitter tastes are usually aversive. If this technology can usefully reduce bitterness, it will be a huge advantage in formulating foods.”
Until then, we’ll just have to power through that kale salad like usual.
