The Watsonville expansion doubled the company’s manufacturing footprint, spanning genetics and cultivation through finished-ingredient production. Monterey Nutra also added commercial leadership across food and beverage, supplements, sports nutrition and pet.
But the briefs coming in look different from those Amir Karian, vice president of nutraceuticals at Monterey Nutra, was seeing a few years ago.
“A year or two ago, many conversations started with, ‘We’re interested in mushrooms. What can we do?’” Karian told NutraIngredients.
“Now, more of those conversations start with a defined benefit, format, target consumer and launch timeline,” he explained.
From supplying ingredients to solving formulations
Brands are also coming to Monterey Nutra with target serving sizes and projected volumes, Karian said, bringing the supplier into product development earlier than in the past.
“The traditional supplier relationship was relatively transactional: provide a sample, specification sheet, certificate of analysis, price and minimum order quantity,” he said.
That model becomes more difficult as mushrooms move beyond capsules and conventional powders. Karian pointed to gummies, hydration products, protein blends, stick packs and ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages, in which formulators have to account for taste, sedimentation, solubility, dose load and stability.
Sports nutrition is driving some of Monterey Nutra’s fastest-moving formulation work, with particular interest in cordyceps for pre-workouts, hydration products, protein blends and RTDs. Karian said interest is also coming from brands exploring formulas designed to complement or reduce reliance on stimulants.
Scaling production and commercial support
The expansion gives Monterey Nutra greater production capacity across its MycoPure Dual Extract Powders, Full Spectrum Powders and branded ingredient portfolio, including its ManeFocus lion’s mane ingredient.
The company also appointed Michal Sohor as director of sales, food and beverage, and Bobby Chadha as director of sales for supplements, sports nutrition and pet.
The additional production comes as Monterey Nutra looks to compete with lower-cost imported mushroom ingredients on domestic supply, traceability and control over cultivation and processing.
“There is a persistent misconception that a U.S. grower cannot keep up with overseas capacity,” Karian said.
“We’ve consistently met our customers’ demand, and this expansion ensures we can continue to do so as the market grows,” he added.
As those projects get closer to launch, he explained that customers are drilling down into the ingredients themselves, asking about species, fruiting bodies versus mycelium, extraction methods and concentrations of active compounds.
“The greatest challenge is credibility,” he quipped.
“Too many products are still built around low use levels, vague potency claims or ingredients that do not clearly disclose the concentration of their active compounds.”
