Why You Can Trust Ninth Path Mushrooms
(Actually… please don’t.)
You read it right — don’t trust us.
Don’t trust any supplement brand.
Too many mushroom companies rely on slick marketing, influencer hype, and feel-good buzzwords to sell you products without giving you the one thing you actually need: evidence.
Trust should never be blind. It should be earned — and tested.
That’s why instead of asking you to trust us, we invite you to scrutinise us. Use the checklist below to cut through the noise and decide whether a mushroom brand (including ours) deserves your hard earned money and a place in your cupboard.
1. Quality Metric: Third-Party Tested Bioactive Compounds
Why do people take mushroom supplements? For their bioactive compounds. Fungal beta-glucans for example, the compound present in all mushrooms and linked to multiple studies on immunity / longevity and many other potential health benefits.
If you wanted more protein in your diet, you’d check the nutrition label before buying. Why should mushrooms be any different?
And yet, in our industry, many companies charge exorbitant prices without ever publishing independent test results for bio-active compounds (fungal beta-glucans, for example - An affordable test commercially available in Australia). Customers are left relying on “trust me, bro” marketing.
Here’s the rule:
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No COA (Certificate of Analysis/Third party lab reports) = No proof.
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No proof = No idea what’s inside.
👉 Quick tip: If a COA only lists “polysaccharides,” you might as well eat rice (rich in polysaccharides). If it lists “beta-glucans” but doesn’t specify fungal beta-glucans, you might as well eat oats. Always look for fungal beta-glucans.
👉 Low fungal beta-glucan % means little amount of mushrooms were used to make a product. We encourage you to read our blog “Why beta-glucans matter"
2. Safety Metric: Third-Party Tested for Contaminants
Health starts with safety. Mushroom products should be tested for three main risks:
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Microbes – Are there harmful bacteria present?
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Chemical residues – Were the mushrooms grown or processed with nasty sprays?
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Heavy metals – Particularly lead, which mushrooms are very good at absorbing.
This is where shortcuts can be dangerous. Many cheap powders imported into Australia never show a COA for heavy metals. And there’s a reason: industrial pollution overseas often leads to higher contamination levels in soil and substrate (wood) used to grow mushrooms.
“Organic” certification may minimise the risk of chemical residue contamination but is useless when it comes to lead. Organic certification doesn't test for heavy metals — meaning your “organic” mushroom powder could still contain unsafe lead levels.
👉 Rule of thumb: If a brand doesn’t openly share third-party lab reports for contaminants, it is already a red flag. Particularly if they come from countries with not well controlled industrial practices / waste disposal or known for their polluted environment.
3. The Starch Test: Try It Yourself at Home
Still not convinced? Great — you shouldn’t be. Here’s a test you can run yourself.
Grab a bottle of iodine tincture (the same stuff you can pick up at most chemists or even eBay for a few bucks). Put a drop on your mushroom powder and wait for about 24h.
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If it turns dark blue/black, that means starch is present — usually from cheap fillers like rice, potatoes or grain.
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If it stays its normal colour, congrats: no starchy fillers.
It’s that simple. You don’t need a lab coat or a PhD to check whether a product has been bulked out with rubbish. Just iodine and curiosity.
👉 Go ahead — test Ninth Path. We actually encourage it. Because our powders are real mushrooms without any fillers, you won’t see that ugly blue-black reaction.
If a company tells you “trust us, we don’t use fillers” but they do not encourage you from testing in a market plagued with rice supplements… well, draw your own conclusions.
4. The Real-World Test: Visit the Farm and manufacturing premises
In the age of AI-generated videos, polished social media reels, and “authentic” marketing campaigns, what you see online isn’t always what you get.
That’s why the ultimate test is simple: go visit the farm.
Better yet, ask if you can pick up your order in person. A legitimate, transparent business should welcome visitors — even unannounced ones. If the answer is “no, sorry, not possible”, you’ve just spotted a red flag.
👉 Reality check: Any company can film a clean-looking “facility tour” with borrowed equipment or staged footage. But you can’t fake letting a real customer walk through the premises.
At Ninth Path, we love showing people around. If you want to see where your mushrooms come from, come say hi — you might even catch us mid-brew.
5. Cowboys in the wild west or safety compliant business?
Here’s a test that’s boring but vital: is the business even legally allowed to make things people can ingest?
In Australia, if you’re eating something, it falls into one of three buckets:
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Unprocessed produce (apples, fresh mushrooms, etc.)
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Therapeutic goods (approved, listed, and registered by the TGA made in TGA approved facilities)
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Processed food (made in a registered food manufacturing facility)
That’s it. There’s no special category for “state-of-the-art backyard lab” or “boutique artisanal facility.” If a company is selling processed mushroom products without being a registered food manufacturer, their food safety practices are probably not up to Australian food safety standards and they’re operating illegally. Worse, putting their customers at risk.
👉 How to check: Ask the question to the manufacturer. If you receive any answers different from “Here are our food registration certificates for all our facilities (in case they operate across multiple locations) and you are welcome to contact the local councils (list of councils they operate under) to verify it”. If you really want to be sure, just contact the local council(s) where the product is made.
👉 One area to pay close attention to: how mushrooms are dehydrated. Heat dehydration done incorrectly can leave mushrooms sitting in the “danger zone” (between 5 °C and 60 °C) for longer than 4h — a big NO when it comes to food safety. Premises performing food dehydration must abide by thorough audits and higher food manufacturing premise categories. Don’t take this for granted - we have seen some videos floating around with mushrooms being dehydrated in places that couldn’t possibly be compliant food manufacturing premises.
If a business can’t confirm they’re registered and compliant, walk away. No amount of branding can make up for unsafe food practices.
What This Means for Ninth Path
Now, let’s turn the spotlight back on us.
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We run and openly publish third-party COAs for our products, showing both fungal beta-glucan concentration and contaminant testing.
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We grow and make our products in Australia in registered food manufacturing premises and our mushrooms are processed in HACCP accredited facilities
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We encourage at-home iodine testing to prove we don’t use starchy fillers.
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And yes — you’re welcome to visit, or even pick up your order directly.
Does this make us the right fit for everyone? Maybe not. And we’re okay with that.
You might have fallen in love with the package design different from ours, the influencer / owner may have a similar lifestyle to yours, you might have found the influencer you saw holding the product sexy, you might love seeing AI generated videos popping up your Facebook feed continuously or the owner looks like someone you trust.
Ultimately, it is your choice how to spend your money and manage your own health/safety/risks and we respect it.
Final Word
So please: don’t trust us.
Don’t trust anyone until they show you proof or you have done your research and background checks properly.
But if real transparency, objective quality/safety and integrity matter to you, you’ll find them here at Ninth Path Mushrooms.
Because your health and pocket deserves more than clever marketing.
YOU deserve better than that.