Technology originally developed to feed astronauts on long space voyages is now being commercialized in B.C. as a mushroom-based ingredient for everything from soup to meat products.
Maia Farms uses fermentation to grow mycelium — the root-like network that makes up most of a fungus — and turn it into protein ingredients for food manufacturers.
The technology grew out of the Deep Space Food Challenge, launched by the Canadian Space Agency in 2021 in collaboration with NASA to find ways to produce nutritious food during long-duration space missions.
Vancouver-based Ecoation Innovative Solutions won the Canadian competition in 2024 and Maia Farms was spun out to commercialize the fungi technology for food production on Earth.
Fungal food innovation
Maia Farms co-founder Gavin Schneider’s path to commercial food ingredient entrepreneur started on a large crop farm in southern Alberta. A trained agronomist, he also gathered controlled-environment agriculture experience in Ontario, Vancouver and Southeast Asia before joining the Deep Space Food Challenge in 2021 with co-founders Ashton Ostrander, an engineer, and Sean Lacoursiere, who has a doctorate in molecular neuroscience.
“I’m a farmer by background — I have a passion for feeding people,” said Schneider.
“Animal ag has significant rising costs [and] plant-based proteins have structurally underperformed in taste and texture in food applications,” he said. “Where we’re coming at it at Maia is with agriculture’s third kingdom — fungi.”
Instead of taking months or years to produce animal protein, Maia Farms, which now employs approximately 20 people, uses fermentation to produce large volumes of fungal biomass in less than five days. That biomass can then be made into various ingredients for food and feed applications.
Plant protein progression
Its flagship product, Maia Form, combines mushrooms and peas into a textured protein available as grounds, bites, strips and shreds. According to Schneider, it is designed to provide the meat-like texture, water-binding ability and natural umami flavour food manufacturers need in alternative or blended meat products.
The product was named Best Meat Solution at the 2025 World Plant-Based Innovation Awards.
Maia Farms also produces mushroom-based powders that can be used for protein fortification, emulsification and salt reduction, and is developing a fresh, high-moisture ingredient for blended meat applications.
Schneider stresses the company isn’t trying simply to replace meat.
“I’m not anti-meat — we are anti-inefficiency,” he said.
Expanding market potential
One potential market is blended products that combine conventional meat with fermented mushroom protein with food manufacturers already testing formulations containing 20 to 50 per cent Maia ingredients alongside beef. The goal is to reduce ingredient costs without sacrificing the characteristics consumers expect.
Maia Form and Maia Flour are already commercially available, and the company has approximately 20 Canadian food-manufacturing customers as well as selling into the United States. About 50 tonnes of product have been shipped as of early August, with applications ranging from soups and savoury snacks to meat alternatives and blended products.
The company is also moving into animal feed, including pet food and aquaculture, and has supplied a custom product to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
Schneider credits Canada’s innovation ecosystem in helping the team move from research to commercialization. The company has received funding and support from organizations like Protein Industries Canada, Canadian Food Innovation Network and Natural Products Canada alongside private investment. It is also part of the THRIVE Canada V Accelerator Cohort.
The company recently opened a new Vancouver headquarters and “fungal intelligence lab” as it ramps up fermentation capacity to support market expansion and prepare for a planned Series A financing round in 2027.
For Schneider, success would mean mushroom protein eventually stops being viewed as an alternative.
“What I want to see is it becoming as common to be eating mushrooms daily as consuming yogurt or chicken as a protein source,” he said.
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