Education Materials
Areas of Expertise
- Mushroom Production Optimization
- IoT
- Renewable Energy
- Manufacturing and Automation
- Engineering Education
Producing High-Quality Edible Mushrooms from Lignocellulosic Biomass in a Small-Scale
One of the high-value products that could be produced from lignocellulosic biomass is mushrooms. Mushrooms are the fruiting body of fungus and are domestically cultivated using lignocellulosic biomass obtained from agriculture byproducts and woody biomass. A handful of edible mushrooms are commercially cultivated on small, medium, and large scales that are used for culinary, medicinal, and nutraceutical applications. About 50-60% of mushroom consumed in the world is button mushroom. Other gourmet mushrooms such as Oyster, Shiitake, and Maitake are widely consumed. Details about different lignocellulosic biomass and their composition that are commonly used to produce mushrooms are outlined in this review. In addition, discussions on four major processing steps (i) producing solid and liquid spawn, (ii) conventional and mechanized processing lignocellulosic biomass substrates to produce mushroom beds, (iii) maintaining growth conditions in climate-controlled rooms, and (iv) energy requirements and managements to produce mushrooms are also provided.
Figure 1. List of domestically cultivated edible mushrooms around the world. Here, A, Culinary mushrooms; B, Oyster mushrooms; and C, Medicinal mushrooms. The common name of the mushroom is given in the bracket and the temperature ranges in which these mushrooms could be cultivated is also given for each mushroom.
Nutritious Mushroom Protein Crisp – Healthy Alternative to Starchy Snack
Global salty snacks category had reached USD 137 billion in sales in 2018. Due to growing health concerns and awareness, consumers are looking for healthy snack choices by avoiding ingredients such as fat, sugar, cholesterol, and sodium and selecting baked and salt free multigrain chips. A sizable number of consumers are concerned about snack nutrition and look for quality ingredients and minimally processed foods called as “Good Health Snack (GHS)”. In this work, we present the development of method of producing and testing mushrooms protein crisps (MPC), a healthy alternative to conventional starchy snacks that are rich in protein, nutraceutical compounds, minerals, vitamin, dietary fiber, and immunity inducing beta-glucans.
Figure 2. Different steps involved in in producing quality MPC. Here, 1, Cleaning mushrooms with running water and wait until water drains out; 2, Slicing mushrooms using vegetable processing machine; 3, Seasoning the slices; 4, baking using spiral oven; 5, Sensory evaluation using professional taste tester; 6, quality control to remove deformed crisps and 7, packing using machine.