Bitter taste blocker mushroom: novelty in the food industry

Bitter is one of the flavors less appreciated by humans. In the industry there are many efforts to inhibit it. Now there’s a new, natural ingredient, a bitter taste blocker mushroom that also enhances the sweet taste.

How many of you added lots of sugar to the coffee because it was too bitter? ClearTaste is a powder that makes coffee and other foods less bitter. The secret? A bitter taste blocker mushroom that also enhances the sweet taste. Oh, it’s universal, it fits any product, and it does not taste like champignon!

A startup MycoTechnology, USA, has developed the product that promises to shake the food industry. Basically they promote fungus growth in a controlled environment, collect, dehydrate and turn into powder.

The molecules of this fungus when coming into contact with the taste buds of your mouth inhibit the detection of bitter tastes. Another effect is the 50-90% decrease in the use of sugar in the formulations, a much desired effect for new healthy products.

Very often salty products have sugar in their formula, this happens to mask the bitterness of other components. Even products with sweeteners like Stevia face the same problem of after-taste.

Bitter receptors are present not only in your tongue

These bitter receptors, the T2Rs, are also in your gut, lungs, and brain. Scientists are still studying why. They found that in the lungs, for example, they are involved in the relaxation and constriction of the airways and can aid in the treatment of asthma. In the gut, they inform our cells how well they absorb nutrients, and in the brain they regulate our satiety mechanisms.

Taste buds in the human tongue (credit: Visual Dictionary)

So the fact of blocking our bitter receptors is not fully elucidated, we do not know what impacts it may have on other areas of our body. In addition, coming from a “natural” mushroom does not mean that the product is automatically safe, so it will undergo several tests to ensure its quality and safety.

Startup’s product-market-fit shift

Startup focused on the coffee industry as its target customer, but with the refinement of the proposal, they expanded the range and began to offer the product to other segments such as sweeteners, teas, chocolates, beers among others (chocolates for sale here).

The idea is so promising that MycoTechnology has already raised $ 76 million in seven rounds of investment. The plan now is to achieve large-scale production.

References: Food Navigator, Digital Trends, Fast Company, Daily Coffee News, Mold, Bitter taste receptors: Extraoral roles in pathophysiology, Bitter taste receptors: Novel insights into the biochemistry and pharmacology , Crunch Base