17/12/2025
So many of our customers are concerned about the status of Turkey tail mushrooms and Cordyceps militaris.
Both Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) mushroom tinctures and Cordyceps militaris have been classed as a novel food under UK law and have effectively been deemed illegal to sell.
The UK foods standards agency has the right to seize stock and impose fines on the sale of goods.
Kevin Bowles founder of Beanfreaks (My Dad) was a true believer; He got into the health food Industry in 1978 with a desire to supply the products he wanted to take to keep himself healthy. Over the years we have watch many effective products be banned, tied up in red tape and disappear from our shelves. He naively thought coming out of the EU would allow UK health food stores the freedom to stock products, that our customers would benefit from. I must be honest I never agreed with this ideal, as politics is an interesting game, with so many agendas and false promises we never get to see the real situation until we knee deep in a new level of farmyard by-product and wielding a strong shovel. It would be nice to understand how coming out of the EU allowed the UK to desecrate its waterways and beaches with raw sewage, but at the same time suddenly an EU directive still applies to remove herbs with a traditional safe use for hundreds of years.
Ah but here’s the problem it was hundreds of years of use as an Asian medicinal mushroom. And even though Hippocrates the father of medicine is quoted to have the foundation belief : “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”; No not in the UK.
“We weren’t eating those kind of mushrooms before 1997 that’s weird Asian stuff and not for us, and therefore falls into a novel food category, however we hear it’s awfully effective, lots of very poorly people are finding it beneficial - actually we think it’s a medicine and that’s a whole new ball game.”
So, here’s the double bind we do need a novel foods directive to protect us from GMO (Genetically Modified Organism))foods, harmful additives, and any number of nasties that could be cooked up in a lab. But ironically for a flightless bird turkey tail flew too close to the sun, shone a little too brightly, and we shall now face the consequence. I think we all knew Turkey Tail was always a hot potato, the health benefits a little too beneficial, but that’s what makes it such a sad loss, and what of the other medicinal mushrooms? When do they become novel foods?
A glimmer of positivity although Cordyceps militaris is classed as a novel food mainly because of its insect basis. Cordyceps sinensis the vegan form grown on a rice matrix currently isn’t classed as a novel food.
I can live with that, the thought of consuming caterpillars has never appealed to me, so a rice-based mushroom offering the same benefits is a winner. But this is the fundamental problem with our industry we live in the grey falling between the cracks and hoping we can continue to supply the products we want to take to keep us healthy.
