Are mushroom supplements vegan? What our capsules are made of

Whether a mushroom supplement counts as vegan depends on its ingredients, including the capsule shell. Our Lion's Mane, Reishi and Chaga capsules and Mushroom Essentials Complex have no ingredients of animal origin in the capsule: extract and a pine-cellulose shell. One detail matters to strict vegans: our farm's growing substrate includes egg shells from a neighbouring chicken farm.

Below we list what goes into each of our capsules and what to check on any label.

Contents

1. Are mushrooms vegan?
2. Are Human Pro's mushroom capsules vegan?
3. What is the capsule shell made of?
4. Where is the full ingredient list on the pack?
5. How do we check what is in each batch?
6. What should you check on any mushroom supplement label?

Are mushrooms vegan?

Mushrooms are fungi, a kingdom of their own, separate from both plants and animals, so the mushroom itself is not an animal product. Whether a finished supplement is vegan depends on everything else that goes into it, starting with the capsule shell.

The mushrooms in our capsules come from two places. Lion's Mane and Reishi are grown and extracted on our farm in Flevoland, the Netherlands, and both extracts are made from the fruiting body. Chaga is a sclerotium, the dense conk that grows wild on birch in Fennoscandia (northern Finland and Sweden); we buy it raw and extract it on our farm.

You may also want to know what the farm mushrooms grow on: we make our own substrate on the farm from regional by-products. These are sawdust and wood chips from nearby forests, grain husks, leftover brewery yeast and egg shells from a neighbouring chicken farm. The mushrooms grow on that substrate, and the capsule holds the extract of the harvested mushroom.

We name the egg shells because a vegan reader may want to weigh them. That choice is yours to make.

Are Human Pro's mushroom capsules vegan?

By ingredients, our capsules hold nothing of animal origin. Our Lion's Mane, Reishi and Chaga capsules and Mushroom Essentials Complex contain extract in a pine-cellulose shell, not gelatin, and Mushroom Essentials Complex adds niacin (vitamin B3). The Lion's Mane and Reishi in them grow on a substrate that includes egg shells, so a strict vegan may weigh that growing input differently.

Our Lion's Mane capsules show the pattern. One serving is 3 capsules of 420 mg Lion's Mane extract, 1,260 mg in total, made from the fruiting body. The table gives the same details for each product.

Product	Label serving	Part of the mushroom	Capsule shell
Lion's Mane capsules	3 capsules of 420 mg Lion's Mane extract, 1,260 mg in total	Fruiting body	Pine cellulose
Reishi capsules	3 capsules of 420 mg red reishi extract, 1,260 mg in total	Fruiting body	Pine cellulose
Chaga mushroom capsules	3 capsules of 420 mg Chaga extract, 1,260 mg in total	Sclerotium	Pine cellulose
Mushroom Essentials Complex	4 capsules, with 417.5 mg each of Lion's Mane, Reishi, Cordyceps and Chaga extract, plus 2.5 mg niacin (vitamin B3)	See the label	Pine cellulose

Source: Human Pro product labels and batch certificates, re-checked on the day of publishing.

The shell does not change the serving. Take 3 capsules (1,260 mg) of Lion's Mane, Reishi or Chaga a day with a glass of water. For Mushroom Essentials Complex, take 4 capsules a day with a glass of water.

The certificates for that blend are on the MEC lab results page.

What is the capsule shell made of?

Our capsule shell is made of pine cellulose, a plant fibre taken from pine wood. Cellulose is the material that builds the cell walls of plants, so a cellulose shell holds no animal material. Gelatin, the other common capsule material, is made from animal collagen, which is why a gelatin capsule is not vegan.

The shell is part of what you swallow, so it belongs on the ingredient list. As a general rule, a cellulose shell often appears on a label as hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, or HPMC, which is made from cellulose. A gelatin shell appears as gelatin, sometimes with its animal source named.

So the shell is the first line to find on any capsule label. It names the material itself, which a front-of-pack statement does not.

Where is the full ingredient list on the pack?

The full ingredient list is printed on the pack under a heading that includes the word "ingredients". EU food information law makes the list of ingredients a mandatory particular for prepacked food, and that includes food supplements. It must name every ingredient in descending order of weight (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Articles 9 and 18).

Read that list on the pack you hold, because it is the text that belongs to your batch. This article names the mushroom extract and the capsule shell; the pack carries the complete list.

The LOT number is printed on the back of the pack, next to the best-before date. The best-before date of our mushroom capsules is set 24 months after production. You can look your LOT number up on our test-results pages.

How to keep the pack until that date is in our guide to storing mushroom supplements.

How do we check what is in each batch?

What should you check on any mushroom supplement label?

To check whether any mushroom supplement is vegan, read its ingredient list for the capsule shell and every added ingredient. A vegan statement on the front of a pack is voluntary information. EU law says voluntary information must not mislead, but Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 does not define "vegan" itself.

The regulation leaves the rules for vegetarian and vegan information to implementing acts by the European Commission (Article 36(3)(b)). Until a seller's wording can be checked against such rules, the ingredient list is the most direct check you have.

Four questions cover most labels:

1. Is the capsule shell cellulose, HPMC or gelatin?
2. Which ingredients follow the mushroom, such as flavourings, added vitamins or a carrier, and does the label name where each one comes from?
3. Is the mushroom material an extract or a ground powder, and which part of the mushroom was used?
4. Is there a published certificate for the batch, so you can match it to the LOT on your pack?

If the label leaves a question open, ask the seller in writing. Our guide to mushroom capsules, powders and tinctures explains how an extract differs from a powder.

A certificate of analysis does not test whether a product is vegan. It shows what was measured in that batch, and the ingredient list shows what went into it.

What to do next

For everything about one mushroom, from the farm to the label, read our complete guide to Lion's Mane. To see how each batch is tested, open the lab results and certificates of analysis.

Already have a pack? Match the LOT on your pack to the Lion's Mane capsules batch reports.

Update history

• 27 October 2026: Rewritten in full. The article now explains what our mushroom capsules are made of, including the capsule shell, the part of each mushroom used and the farm substrate, and adds how to match a pack to its batch certificate and a safety section.