BMC Ingredients Gets Health Canada Approval for Rhiza Mycoprotein, Targeting 2027 Launch

Californian startup BMC Ingredients (formerly The Better Meat Co) has secured a letter of no objection from Health Canada, enabling it to sell its Rhiza mycoprotein in the country.

US mycoprotein player BMC Ingredients is expanding its North American presence, having secured regulatory approval to sell its whole-biomass innovation in Canada.

The country’s food safety regulator, Health Canada, has issued a letter of no objection for the sale of the firm’s mycelium ingredient, Rhiza, in applications such as blended meat and seafood, animal-free meat analogues, and dairy alternatives.

“We intend to be producing large-scale commercial volumes of Rhiza mycoprotein starting within Q2 2027, including shipping to Canada,” BMC Ingredients founder and CEO Paul Shapiro told Green Queen.

The latter came days before the company rebranded from The Better Meat Co to its new name, in an effort to reflect its expanded focus beyond just meat alternatives.

BMC Ingredients has ‘a lot of activity’ going on in Canada

Rhiza is produced via submerged fermentation of the fungal strain Neurospora crassa, which has a long history of human consumption in foods such as oncom (a fermented Indonesian staple made from byproducts like soy pulp) and Roquefort cheese.

At the end of the fermentation process, the wet biomass is separated from the growth medium via filtration, and the resulting moist cake is diced into small pieces and dehydrated using a heat treatment step. The dried and shredded biomass is then sieved and packaged.

According to the Health Canada letter, Rhiza contains approximately 45% protein and 30% fiber, and can be used at inclusion rates of 50% to 90% on a rehydrated basis.

The mycoprotein has more protein than eggs, and has a protein digestibility score of 0.87-0.96 (close to casein, beef and eggs). Moreover, it has more fibre than oats, more iron and zinc than beef, and more potassium than bananas, and contains no cholesterol and virtually no saturated fat.

“Based on our evaluation of the submitted information, we have no objection to the sale of Rhiza Mycoprotein for use as an alternative protein and a source of dietary fibre,” the letter states.

The company recently introduced two ingredient formats. RhizaTex comprises mycelium granules specifically designed for applications where texture is critical, including meat analogues and blended meats. And RhizaPro is a mycelium powder for products that require solubility, emulsification, and gelation, including dairy alternatives, smoothies, bars, pasta, and baked goods.

BMC Ingredients already sells these as ingredients to B2B partners, and intends to do the same in Canada. “Beena Goldenberg, former CEO of Hain Celestial Canada, is on our board of directors and is working on this too,” says Shapiro. “We don’t broadcast which companies we work with unless they want to, but we’ve got a lot of activity going on north of our border.”

Asian co-manufacturing facility will unlock Rhiza’s main bottleneck

Currently, the startup is primarily focused on scaling up its platform, which has been a major bottleneck for the business. BMC Ingredients operates a 9,000-litre bioreactor at its demo facility in Sacramento, which can produce thousands of pounds of mycelium.

But this plant is already “completely maxed out” and has purchase orders for all of the mycoprotein it can produce until the end of the year, Shapiro told Green Queen earlier this month. ”We’ve already turned down several purchase orders that were too large for us to fill from Sacramento,” he said.

The firm has teamed up with a contract manufacturer in Asia to ramp up production. That facility is set to open in Q2 next year, and will be able to churn out 100 dry tonnes of Rhiza each month to support its global commercialisation pathway.

Last year, BMC Ingredients raised $31M in Series A funding to scale up and undercut the price of commodity beef. ”We project reaching price parity with wholesale commodity beef once fully commercialised in our new facility. With further scale, we intend to reach chicken pricing. We will also be price-competitive with some whey isolates,” Shapiro said this month.

BMC Ingredients has already secured five agreements with major meat producers in North America, South America and Asia, collectively projected to generate $13M in annual revenue. Rhiza is currently being used by around a dozen companies in the US, where it secured a ‘no questions’ letter from the Food and Drug Administration in 2024 and the ingredient has been approved for sale in Singapore.

“Health Canada’s letter of no objection is another important validation of Rhiza’s safety and commercial readiness,” Shapiro said in a statement.

“Rhiza is a new crop for humanity: a whole-food mycelium made by fungi fermentation. While this [fungus] has been consumed for centuries by traditional cultures, thanks to BMC, it’s now being farmed in a way that can help feed billions of people in a sustainable way.”