The Spice Must Flow: Addressing flowability in freeze-dried bioactive-rich mushroom tincture powders

<jats:p> Poorly flowing nutritional supplement powders are problematic both during production and for the consumer experience, leading to product waste and economic loss. This is a particular problem for materials generated from glycoside and protein-rich extracts such as mushroom powders. As there is an interest in keeping “clean” labels, free from non-endogenous additives, we explore the benefits of adding mushroom protein powder (MPP) to improve the physical properties and solubility of lyophilized powders derived from three common nutraceutical mushroom extracts ( <jats:italic toggle="yes">Hericium erinaceus</jats:italic> , <jats:italic toggle="yes">Ganoderma lucidum</jats:italic> , and <jats:italic toggle="yes">Cordyceps sinensis</jats:italic> ). The target parameters included bulk and tapped densities, angle of repose, Hausner ratio, Carr’s index. In addition, the free solubility in water, and the bio-active content of the products were evaluated. The inclusion of between 2–5% of MPP improved qualitative flowability and appearance at the slight cost of decreased solubility; the standard quantitative metrics for flowability—angle of repose and the Hausner and Carr parameters do not change despite the material being more “powdery” showing that the tools we use to measure flowability don’t capture the phenomenon fully. When these products were compared to commercial samples, we found our materials were considerably more flowable and far richer in the primary nutrients of interest: β-glucan, ergosterol and ganoderic acid A. The study suggests that a consumer-friendly product meeting interests in a clean label can still provide a very rich product. The study also casts doubt on the nutritional content of commercial nutraceuticals and provides additional caution and evidence that label accuracy in the market can be poor. </jats:p>