Psyence completes its first official, validated harvest of psychedelic mushrooms

Psyence Group is one step closer to achieving British Standards Institute (BSI) certification , having completed its first official validated harvest of psychedelic mushrooms (psilocybe cubensis) at its federally-licensed facility In Lesotho, Southern Africa. The state-of-the-art facility has been built to GMP standards, is FDA registered and has been operational since January 2021.

To achieve BSI certification, Psyence is using the  ISO22000 system as its base. Set by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), and checked by an official and authorised agency, ISO 22000 creates a single product safety standard that harmonises the various national standards into one easy-to-understand set of requirements that are simple to apply and recognised around the world. ISO 22000 maps out what an organisation needs to do to ensure that the product it produces is safe. It covers all the processes in the value chain that impact the safety of the end product including the management of systems, personnel, internal and external communication and hygiene principles.

As part of the ISO22000 certification process, Psyence is completing a series of production runs to successfully validate its standard operating procedures and production methods ahead of ISO22000 audits, which are expected to be concluded at the end of the year.

Psyence’s dried mushrooms are  nitrogen flushed and vacuum packed in bags to prevent oxidisation. Each 100-gram package is accompanied with a certified full set of paperwork required for legal reasons, certificates and analysis. Psyence already has the capacity to supply quality-controlled but uncertified batches to its drug development partners and the global medical research market and is expecting to be able to offer certified batches by Q1 2022, when the certification process is complete.