MyForest Foods expands retail availability across New York City, increases production and prepares to enter 'beef' market

MyForest Foods Co has announced that its flagship product, MyBacon, is now available for sale at 32 retailer and food-service locations across New York and Massachusetts. Following MyForest Foods’ initial expansion into New York City with two retail partners in November 2022, the list has continued to grow, driven by strong consumer demand and enabled by the fast ramp-up in production at its new state-of-the-art mycelium farm in Upstate NY.

It remains an important part of MyForest Foods’ strategy to partner with natural products retailers that prioritize food accessibility and sustainability while pursuing its mission to feed the planet in an environmentally sensitive manner.

MyBacon's expansion and the growing market for mycelium foods are indicative of its recent momentum. Given the increasing demand, MyForest Foods is pleased to bring its second highly-anticipated product to market later this year: MyTMJerky. Derived from the same mycelium ingredient, MyJerky is the latest proof point of the company’s commitment to meeting consumers’ desires for delicious, high-quality, meatless options.

“Our mission, from the start, has been to harness the power of mushrooms to feed the planet in a more sustainable way,” said Eben Bayer, Co-founder & CEO of MyForest Foods. “MyBacon delights consumers with a fresh, clean-label, meatless bacon product that tastes great and keeps pigs safe. Meanwhile, our star ingredient, mycelium, enables us to ideate limitless variations – from form to flavor – in pursuit of positive, lasting change for our food system and, in turn, Spaceship Earth. With the added harvests from Swersey Silos, we are looking forward to launching MyJerky, a yummy snack-able we have been enjoying internally the past year.”

To support the expanded product availability, MyForest Foods has also announced its first successful harvest production with Whitecrest Mushrooms, based in Ontario, Canada, which scaled operations one year after announcing its initial trial partnership. Whitecrest’s farm, outfitted with Ecovative’s patented AirMycelium technology, is expected to produce an annual yield of nearly three million pounds of MyBacon mycelium on less than an acre of land.

“As the importance and utility of mycelium are being increasingly realized, I am tremendously excited to reach this critical milestone,” said Tyler Watson, a mycologist at Whitecrest Mushrooms. “Working with MyForest Foods to scale the production of its remarkable MyBacon product has been an incredible journey and I could not be more excited for what the future holds.”

To keep up with demand and mark an international foothold, MyForest Foods also reaps benefits from Ecovative’s recent acquisition of the Lambert Spawn Europa facility in the Netherlands. With this deal, Ecovative, the mycelium technology company that spun out MyForest Foods in 2020, expands the global reach of its patented mycelium technologies to more than five continents. The acquired facility will continue producing spawn to serve its existing customers, as well as substrate used to grow mycelium materials, which will directly support MyForest Foods and its popular MyBacon product.

To sustain the great innovation MyForest Foods has demonstrated so far, the company is also happy to announce the hiring of Jeff Mundt, Vice President of Research & Development. Mundt's prior food experience spans Mars and Hershey across multiple disciplines including manufacturing, fundamental research, new business ventures, transformational technologies and brand innovation. In his most recent role at Butterball, Mundt led its R&D and Innovation team, launching new products and implementing process improvements across all aspects of innovation.