How two friends took 'functional mushrooms' from Scottish lab to 250 Tesco stores

Two long-term friends from Moray have launched their “functional mushrooms” brand into the UK’s largest retailer in a bid to improve people’s mental health and boost their immunity levels.

Erik Lang and Smith Feeney are supplying 250 Tesco stores with five products from their Love Mushrooms line-up. The products are also being stocked on the supermarket giant’s website.

The entrepreneurs have their own organic mushroom farm and laboratory on Marcassie Farm in Forres, close to the Cairngorms National Park. They use ultrasonic assisted extraction, which is said to be the most efficient extraction method and preserves the natural compounds to ensure high purity and stronger extracts.

Smith Feeney and Erik Lang of Love Mushrooms. Picture: Jason Hedges/DC Thomson

Research has suggested that functional mushrooms can help with concentration, stress, anxiety, energy and immunity. Worldwide, it is now a multi-billion pound industry.

Lang, who was born in France, has been growing mushrooms for more than ten years and has worked on organic farms and as a sous chef in restaurants around the world. He said: “Our dream is to make the highest quality functional mushroom tinctures and capsules available to people at a price that isn’t a barrier, instead of them being seen as a luxury product.

“We’re excited to be stocked all over the country in Tesco, as well as online. It means we can bring functional mushrooms to the mainstream.”

Love Mushrooms offers a variety of carefully curated tinctures and capsules, with each product priced at just under £10. The capsules are certified organic and suitable for vegans.

Feeney, who has a background in the charity sector and first met Lang while they were both working in a Spanish ecological community project in 2014, added: “Like Erik, I’ve been growing lots of different varieties of mushrooms for years wherever I’ve been living in the world and have done a lot of research into their amazing health benefits.

“When we found Marcassie Farm we knew it was the perfect place to start our business. It’s a peaceful place, and a real close-knit community, which champions innovation and creativity as well as promoting heritage crafts, food growing and artisan production.”