The Mushroom Powder Scam: What you need to know

Medicinal Mushrooms have been getting a lot of well-deserved attention lately for their health benefits — and for good reason. These powerful fungi offer real, research-backed support for immunity, brain health, energy, and more.

UNFORTUNATELY Many Mushroom Powders on the Market Are Mostly Filler.

So what’s going on?

The Mycelium-on-Grain (MOG) Problem

Instead of using only the actual fruiting body of the mushroom — the part rich in beneficial compounds — many companies use mycelium grown on grain, then grind it all up and sell it as “mushroom powder.”

This is known as MOG: Mycelium on Grain. It’s cheap, easy to produce, and heavily marketed — and it contains very little beneficial medicinal compounds.

Why Is This Happening?

Most companies selling mushroom products have no hands-on experience with growing mushrooms which means they rely entirely on bulk suppliers without understanding the important differences.

During my own investigations, I found several companies that were knowingly mislabeling their products and misleading customers. These brands were even found at our local health food stores and recommended by the staff working there simply out of ignorance and lack of expertise on this subject.

What Is Mycelium on Grain (MOG)?

Mycelium is the root-like network of a fungus. In some species, it eventually produces a mushroom — known as the fruiting body — which is where many of the health-boosting compounds are found.

MOG producers grow mycelium on grains like oats. They grind up the entire grain-and-mycelium mass, dry it, and sell it as “mushroom powder.” They claim the grain is fully “digested” by the mycelium and that there is no more oats in final product — but that’s simply not true. If you shake a MOG

block, you’ll clearly see oats still inside.

Here’s a video I made to show you.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/702d8d_fd904c7e82624783b49b762fde6c2611/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Why Is This a Problem? While mycelium does have medicinal compounds, there is no way to separate the mycelium from the grain, so when the product is tested for medicinal compounds the results show 90% starch(filler) levels with very low Beta-D-Glucan levels as seen on the chart below. Being mislead and ripped off financially not only sucks but this can also have serious health consequences. 1) If they don't list the grain in ingredients- What if someone has an allergy to that grain? 2) If someone has a serious illness that a medicinal mushroom is known to help with, and you are using a version that contains a fraction of the medicinal compounds than you are severely diminishing your chances of recovery. 3) When they use the whole MOG bag to be dried and ground up, there could be a bunch of other unhealthy bacterial contamination growing inside that is not seen or known by these suppliers and then added into the product. Here you can see test results done on mushroom powders VS MOG The MOG is on average 90% starch levels.

Why Are They Doing This?

•  Profit. It’s drastically easier and cheaper to grow mycelium on oats than to cultivate real mushrooms. MOG yields more bulk, costs less, and can be sold to companies who repackage it into “mushroom” capsules, drinks, or blends — often at premium prices.

• Lack of expertise: Most companies selling mushroom products don’t grow mushrooms or have real knowledge on the subject. They rely on suppliers and often fall for misleading marketing themselves.

  
  

How to Protect Yourself

Simply being aware of this issue is not enough to decipher the marketing tactics used by these companies. So go over these points

• Read labels carefully. Watch for vague language or any mention of “mycelium”, “cultured on grain.” or “full spectrum. This is a guarantee that it’s MOG based product and may be mostly filler.

• Avoid multi-ingredient blends. Even if they contain real mushrooms, the amount is often tiny — not enough to make a difference and is overpriced for what you get.

• Skip the capsules and tinctures. These are often underdosed. For exp. based on research I have seen a proper serving is around 2 grams or 1 Tsp. Capsules hold about 0.2g — 1/10th of a proper dose- meaning you would have to swallow 10 capsules to get a 2 gram dose, plus you pay for the capsule versions. Again paying more for less.

  
  
  
  

• Brands Boasting and Bragging Big Buzz words - Not that this is inherently bad but often they are strategically worded in ways that make you think their product is genuine and top quality but aren't. “PROUDLY CANADIAN OPERATED” "MADE IN CANADA" "LOCALLY SOURCED" "NO FILLERS" "TRANSPARENCY" When they say "Proudly manufactured in Canada, that just means they packaged it in Canada, not that they grew anything themself, or that the mushrooms are even from Canada. It just means they packaged it in Canada. Or another example is “Our mushrooms are sourced from local growers right here in the USA baby!” So just because they sourced from USA doesn’t mean it's good,  in fact the main filler filled powder company I have investigated from USA, it might mean their grain mycelium powders were bought from there, but they say these buzz words like "Sourced from USA" as if that means it is automatically good.
  

Example of deceptive advertising

“Organic Mushroom Powder – Lion’s Mane, Chaga / Mycelium Cultured on Oats” It sounds good — but it’s mostly oats.

And yes — oats are gluten-free. So even a “gluten-free” label doesn’t mean there’s no grain inside.

ANOTHER COMMON CLAIM 3RD PARTY TESTED!!! They say "3rd party tested for purity and active compounds" This is not automatically bad, I put the same thing on my labels/website..... BUT, the difference is I actually publish the results on my website. Good luck finding another brand that publishes the results.... (some do but it's rare)

**********QUICK STORY - IMPORTANT EXAMPLE********** A great example of a company selling grain powder as mushroom powder is a company in BC that had the website claiming NO FILLERS, 100% TRANSPARENCY, CANADIAN SOURCED, OTHER BUZZ WORDS But the ingredients said mycelium, so I call the owner and ask how there can be no filler but have mycelium, you can't separate the mycelium from the grain? He said some attempt of an explanation but it didn't make sense but he was adamant that they were not like the other companies that dump the whole grain bag in with the mushroom powder. I asked how he could be so sure......and well he ended up contacting his supplier, and found out they do dump the whole grain bag in there, he actually let me know this... So that's the thing, some of these brands think they are doing things right, but they are mislead, mis informed, and they don't have the expertise to know any better. I guess you could say it is out of an innocent ignorance, but my point is even when a website says ALL the right things; NO FILLER, 100% TRANSPARENT, CANADIAN MUSHROOMS The owner of those brands might actually believe it, and is not intentionally lying.

Bottom Line

Your Trusted Mushroom Supplier

I’m passionate about investigating corruption in many forms. This subject is one of my expertise. Don’t be fooled by the hype. If you're paying for medicinal mushrooms, make sure you’re actually getting them — not just ground-up grain with a sprinkle of mycelium, or overpriced diluted tinctures, or tiny capsules.

I KNOW mushrooms have real healing potential and is NOT just marketing buzz, but only when taken in the proper form and amounts.

Mush Love, and Keep Spreading the Good!

 – Dan the Mushroom Man