About

Forage Hyperfoods began with wild-harvested mushroom wellness products, carefully extracting active compounds to deliver the natural health benefits of fungi. As demand grew, the company transitioned to cultivating their own gourmet mushrooms supplying local restaurants and, eventually, major grocery chains such as Loblaws and Sobeys.  Forage Hyperfoods has developed proprietary sterilization process as well as a novel technique for introducing nutrients to the mushroom substrate, promoting robust growth and superior nutritional value in their harvests.

Project

With the support of the Development and Commercialization program, Forage Hyperfoods will be using the ventureLAB TDS to develop and train a computer vision model using their proprietary image datasets to detect and classify common mushroom crop contaminants, such as neurospora and trichoderma. Integrating this AI into their workflow will allow any team member to upload a photo, instantly receive contamination feedback, and access step-by-step remediation advice based on Forage Hyperfoods’ standard operating procedures. The project will also include leveraging AI in filling out yields and other forms by using voice which saves on input time while reducing potential opening for contamination.

Impact

Through this project, Forage Hyperfoods will achieve significant, tangible outcomes that directly enhance their mushroom farming operations. The primary deliverable is a prototype mobile application with voice-enabled form completion and a validated AI-powered contamination detection system that will be packaged as integrated, user-friendly software solutions for both web and mobile use. By enabling hands-free, spoken documentation of yields and food safety actions, the company estimates a reduction of up to 50% in daily administrative time currently spent on manual data entry.  This could translate to $50,000 per year in labour savings as well as $80,000 per year in lost product.  This will allow the company to hire an additional 2-4 staff in the next 18 months.