As part of Nutraceuticals World’s 2026 State of the Industry review, Bill Chioffi, COO of Nammex, examines the effects of global trade pressures, class action lawsuits, and labeling challenges in the mushroom and supplement markets. He outlines Nammex’s leadership in establishing standards for analytical chemistry related to fungal species and integrity across the growing functional mushroom market.

Trends over the last 12 months in the dietary supplement and the CPG food space have all been affected in some way or another by global tariffs or magic weight loss meds in the form of alt GLP-1 drugs and GLP-1 supportive natural products.

These business factors caused some fluctuation in new product development, expansion, and planning. The weight loss sector, often riddled with false claims, is making another comeback. The positive announcements in recent talks with China are reducing specific U.S. tariffs and suspending some retaliatory tariffs from China.

Knowing this information and current tax/tariff rates was never more important than this past year, though global tariffs have been in place for some time beginning noticeably in 2018. It is clear that China continues to dominate world production of dietary supplement ingredients and ancillaries such as packaging, machinery, and equipment as reflected by the outpouring of trade associations working to mitigate duties on behalf of the industry. Nammex, along with the rest of the industry, is doing its best to navigate the uncertainty and higher costs.

For the coming year Nammex will continue its path of setting the standards for analytical chemistry related to fungal species. Our analytical chemistry team, which works with AOAC, is collaborating with other experts to develop the first AOAC Standard Method Performance Requirement (SMPR) for a mushroom, Lions Mane (Hericium erinaceus).

An SMPR is a voluntary consensus standard that defines the minimum performance characteristics an analytical method must meet for a specific intended use. Since 2017 Nammex has elevated the science and understanding of the important beta-glucans and began measuring other important molecules which are unique to each species, called secondary metabolites. These small molecules hold the key to the several factors which make mushrooms and some forms of pure mycelium highly beneficial and nutritious. Look for Hericenones and Hericenes on Nammex specifications and more fascinating work to come on Lions Mane.

There has been a recent increase in plaintiffs’ attorney activity in the state of California and many more class action lawsuits creating more visibility on truth in labeling and false advertising of dietary supplements. We are noticing more products from mycelium fermented grain produced in the U.S. and being marketed as “mushrooms,” which may be a point of vulnerability.

Any fungal ingredient should be tested for starch content to ensure purity. Where the mycelium is cultivated on a grain substrate and the majority of the ingredient ends up being the grain substrate, it should be so stated to ensure label accuracy in this robustly growing product category.