A Snohomish mushroom business is aiming to reinvent the soup can, and produce a more savory product in the process.
Fungus Among Us recently was awarded a $50,000 state research grant from the Washington Technology Center.
The company will team with Washington State University researchers to develop flexible packaging called a retortable pouch that’s suitable for ready-to-serve soup.
“Part of what got me really thinking about this is I want to get a better smell,” said Michael Monroe, who started Fungus Among Us 13 years ago with his wife, Lynn.
“When you open up a can, it has sort of a dog-food smell to it. I want something that when you open it up, you know you have something really good in front of you and you want to eat it.”
Fungus Among Us is familiar with retortable packaging, having used it to package mushrooms early in its history. It now specializes in truffles, mixes and dried mushrooms.
It hopes its organic soups will draw the taste buds of those on vegetarian, vegan and glucose-free diets. The new product also could help it expand and add four more employees from the local community, Monroe said.
Retortable packaging is considered a niche but growing industry, with some predicting the flexible pouches will eventually eclipse the familiar metal can.
The packaging has been around for decades, first used by the U.S. Army to provide soldiers with lightweight but lasting meals-ready-to-eat.
At the consumer level, grocery store shoppers now routinely find pet food and tuna in the thin pouches.
Globally, retortable pouch consumption has exceeded 10 billion per year and is projected to reach nearly 19 billion pouches per year by 2011, according to Minnesota-based Allied Development Corp., a packaging consulting company.
Juming Tang, a professor with WSU’s Biological Systems Engineering program, will lead the design and development of the thermal sterilization process involved in creating the heat-sealable containers.
Fungus Among Us will come up with the guidelines and raw materials for the soup that will go in them.
Tang and his research partner both were out of the country and unavailable for comment.
Soup is a natural fit for the packaging and a logical next step, said Stanley Sacharow, executive director of The Packaging Group Inc., a New Jersey company that advises companies on retortable packaging.
Other countries already have turned to the flexible pouches for soup and other cream- and sauce-based foods, for which retortable packaging is better.
Retortable pouches have a number of advantages over metal cans, such as better product color and taste, Sacharow said.
The key: less heat needs to be applied during processing.
The packaging has a way to go to eclipse cans, however, where more infrastructure already has been invested.
“The can’s been around for 180 years. This has been around 40 years max, and in the last 15 years been more developed. So it’s still going to take time,” Sacharow said.
Fungus Among Us was one of seven companies statewide to receive $457,301 in Research Technology Development grants.
The Legislature allocates just over $1.2 million each year to the Washington Technology Center for the grant program, spokesman Steve Goll said.
Monroe said the grant is a boost to his small company.
“You have access to a whole group of food technology and resources you normally wouldn’t have if you just went out and hired a high-priced chef,” he said.
The company also will kick in $10,000 toward the project.
Monroe said a timeline for creating the new packaging hasn’t been set, though he’s hopeful a prototype would be ready by fall.
Fungus Among Us had more than $600,000 in sales last year, a 20 percent increase from the previous year, he said.
Its organic products are carried in local stores such as Fred Meyer, QFC and Whole Foods.
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
