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Mushroom Products

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 Mushroom Products
Virginia Paul

Ethiland School of Home Science, Sam Higginbottom Institute of

Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

World population continues to grow; hunger and malnutrition becoming more prevalent in
certain parts of the world, and the nutritional value of some commonly consumed foods
declining due to nutritionally exhausted soils. Wide spread malnutrition with ever-increasing
protein gap in developing countries has necessitated the search for alternative sources of
protein because the production of pulses has not kept pace with our requirement due to
population growth. So the people will increasingly have to look to alternative nutritionally
rich food sources that may maintain good health and provide enhanced immunity to disease.
Edible mushrooms have been recommended by the FAO as a food, contributing to the protein
nutrition of the developing countries depending largely on cereals, as mushroom contains an
ample amount of proteins, carbohydrate, vitamins, fibers and valuable salts. Mushrooms are
commercially grown and considered safe for human consumption. Mushrooms can be used as
a supplementary food item or for value addition in different products like pickle, jam, sweets,
candy, chips and many more to the growing population of the developing countries where the
population mainly depends on cereal based foods. Due to high quality nutrients and their
medical and therapeutic properties, mushrooms have become popular worldwide.

Introduction
A mushroom (or toadstool) is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically
produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name “mushroom”
is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word “mushroom”
is most often applied to those fungi (Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes) that have a stem
(stipe), a cap (pileus), and gills (lamellae, sing. lamella) on the underside of the cap. These
gills produce microscopic spores that help the fungus spread across the ground or its
occupant surface.

Fresh mushrooms are highly perishable with short shelf life under ambient environment,
temperature and humidity and their commercialization becomes difficult. Generally, for long-
term storage of mushrooms, canning and drying processes along with some value addition
technology are employed. The quality of the preserved product is rarely comparable with
that of fresh mushrooms, and these processes are not always suitable for all types of
mushrooms (Manikandan, 2010)

During peak harvest season, market gets saturated quickly and growers resort to distress
sale. Consequently, unsold mushrooms become a total loss. Hence, need to develop methods
for the production of processed products from mushrooms. Preparation of these products
184 Virginia Paul

will not only reduce losses but will also enhance the income by value - addition and better
marketing of this horticultural crop. In the peak period of harvesting, glut in the market can
be checked by adopting appropriate post-harvest technology to process surplus mushroom
into novel value-added products. Mushroom protein is intermediate in quality between
vegetable and animal proteins and the supplementary value of mushroom protein in
vegetarian diet is of considerable significance.

Mushrooms are usually eaten cooked or raw and as garnishing to a meal. They have also
been used in medicine for centuries in the Orient but their potential as ‘Health potentiators’
and ‘Elicitors of immune system’ have been recognised recently. They are major source of
potent new pharmaceutical products and have become attractive as a functional food and
a source for the development of drugs and nutraceuticals (Lakhanpal and Rana, 2005)
responsible with their antioxidant, antitumor (Jones and Janardhanan, 2000) and antimicrobial
properties. The active constituents found in mushrooms are polysaccharides (â-glucans),
dietary fibres, oligosaccharides, triterpenoids, peptides and glycoproteins, proteins, alcohols
, phenols, mineral elements (Pardeshi and Pardeshi, 2009) such as zinc, copper, iodine, iron,
Ca, P ,K, Se, vitamins, amino acids etc.

Mushrooms and Human Nutrition

In recent years, increasing affluence in developing countries has led to a considerable
growth in interest in mushroom consumption due to their high quality nutrients as
mushrooms are a low-calorie food, an excellent source of the protein, fibre, vitamins and
minerals with low content of carbohydrate, fat and calories. The nutritional composition of
mushroom is given in Table no. 1 (Source: USDA Nutrient Database)

Mushrooms are used extensively in cooking, in many cuisines (notably Chinese, Korean,
European, and Japanese). Most mushrooms sold in supermarkets have been commercially
grown on mushroom farms. The most popular of these is

Agaricus bisporus. Several varieties of A. bisporus are grown commercially, including whites,
crimini, and Portobello (Upadhyay and Manjit, 2010). Other cultivated species now available
at many grocers include shiitake, maitake or hen-of-the-woods, oyster, and enoki. In recent
years, increasing affluence in developing countries has led to a considerable growth in
interest in mushroom cultivation, which is now seen as a potentially important economic
activity for small farmers (Haas et al., 2009).

Some mushrooms or extracts are used or studied as possible treatments for diseases, such
as cardiovascular disorders (Guillamon et al., 2010). Some mushroom materials, including
polysaccharides, glycoprotein and proteoglycans are under basic research for their potential
to modulate immune system responses and inhibit tumor growth (Borchers et al., 2008)
whereas other isolates show potential antiviral, antibacterial, anti-parasitic, anti-inflammatory,
and anti-diabetic properties in preliminary studies (Lull et al., 2005). Historically, mushrooms
have long been thought to hold medicinal value, especially in traditional Chinese medicine.
They have been studied in modern medical research since the 1960s, where most studies
use extracts, rather than whole mushrooms.
 Mushroom products 185

Mushroom Products
Generally, for long-term storage of mushrooms, canning and drying processes along with
some value addition technology are employed. Among the various techniques employed
for preservation of mushrooms, drying seems to be an effective approach to extend shelf
life and ensure distribution. Various drying techniques are employed to dry different food
products. Each technique has its own advantages and limitations (Arumuganathan et al.,
2010). Studies comparing traditional sun drying and other drying techniques show that the
use of solar dryer leads to a considerable decline of the drying time and to a significant
development of the product quality in terms of color, texture and taste. Canning is the most
common process used for mushrooms. Preservation of mushrooms by canning has turned
out to be considerably more specialized in recent years (Wakchaure et al., 2010).
Dehydrated mushrooms are used as an important ingredient in several food formulations
including instant soups, pasta, snack seasonings, casseroles, and meat and rice dishes
(Tuley, 1996; Gothandapani et al., 1997). Mehta et al, 2011 developed various products of
Agaricus bisporus like mushroom candy, mushroom ketchup, murraba, mushroom chips,
mushroom nuggets, and mushroom soup- powder, mushroom biscuits, ready- to- eat
mushroom curry. Sharma et al. (1991) also successfully prepared biscuits from mushrooms.
Ulziijargal et. al (2013) studied the quality of bread supplemented with mushroom mycelia
and found that the substitution of 5% wheat flour with mycelium powder did not adversely
affect the texture profile of the bread. Also, after baking, mycelium-supplemented bread was
found to have substantial amounts of GABA and ergothioneine. Desayi (2012) developed
mushroom fortified noodles and found that the amongst the different treatments 10 per cent
mushroom powder along with 0.2 percent vanilla flavour recorded highest scores for
organoleptic parameters like colour and appearance, flavour, crispness, taste and overall
acceptability even upto 30 days of storage. These studies indicate that medicinal mushrooms
have much to offer to healthcare of common man as well as armed personnel. The value
added products can be prepared from fresh or dried mushrooms. Method of preparation of
various products are described below.
Mushroom Flour: The flow diagram of standard procedure is as follows:

Fig. 1. Flow diagram showing preparation of mushroom flour

Source- (Arumuganathan et al., 2010)
186 Virginia Paul

Biscuits
● Melt the butter in a saucepan.

● Replace the wheat flour at 10%, 20% or

30% level for soy flour and at 10% for
mushroom flour respectively during
preparation of biscuits.

● Mix together the wheat flour, soy flour,

and mushroom flour with sugar and
baking powder.

● Make the dough of the mixture of all the

ingredients and make small balls flatten
into cookies shape.

● Bake these cookies in a preheated oven at 120°C for 15 minutes.

● Pack the biscuit in polypropylene packets to maintain crispiness of the biscuits.

Pancake
● Replace the wheat flour at 10%, 20% or
30% level for soy flour and at 10% for
mushroom flour respectively for
preparation of pancakes.

● Sieve the wheat flour, soy flour, and

mushroom flour with sugar into a mixing
bowl and pour milk in it.

● Mix flours and sugar with milk and add

some butter (2 table spoon) in this
mixture.

● Spread this mixture over the pan and cook it with the help of butter.

● Cook till it become golden brown on both the sides.

● Serve it with sugar syrup, lemon, orange poured on it.

Laddo
● Replace the wheat flour at 10%, 20% or 30% level for soy flour and at 10% for mushroom
flour respectively for preparation of ladoo.

● Melt the ghee in a pan over the flame.

 Mushroom products 187

● Add mixture of wheat flour, soy flour,

and mushroom flour in the pan and roast
it by stirring constantly.

● Add jaggery, ground cardamom and

groundnut into it. Mix it properly.

● Grease your hands with ghee and shape

the mixture into laddos.

Pharra
● Replace the wheat flour at 10%, 20% or
30% level for soy flour and at 10% for
mushroom flour respectively for
preparation of pharra.

● Add water and salt in the flour (wheat

flour, soy flour, and mushroom flour) and
make dough out of it.

● Stuff Bengal gram flour in the small

dough

● Boil stuffed dough in water till tender.

● Take out and cut into small pieces.

● Shallow fry it with chopped Onion, Curry leaves, Green chilies and Rai.

● Serve hot.

Mushroom Nuggets
● For preparation of mushroom nuggets,
mushroom powder (dried and coarsely
ground mushrooms) is mixed with the
Urad dhal powder, black gram dhal
powder and soybean powder and
prepare a paste by adding required
quantity of water in it.

● In the above paste mix Garam Masala,

green chili and coriander leaves.

● Make round balls of 2-4 cm diameters

out of the paste.
188 Virginia Paul

● Spread the prepared balls over a steel tray and dry it by sun-drying method and thus
the mushroom nuggets are prepared.

Mushroom Jam
● Make washed mushrooms pulp with mortar and pestle; and then sieve crude mixture
pulp through an 80 nylon mesh.

● Process pulps from apple and banana into fruit jams according to the FAO guideline
(FAO, 1997).

● Extract guava pectin by boiling the guava pieces (one part with two parts of water) for
30 min.

● Take Mushroom pulp 33-45 parts along with mixture of fruits such as apple and banana
in 50% of the total mushroom for the preparation of jam.

● Determine Total Soluble Solids (TSS) and Total Titratable Acidity (TTA) in the pulp
before jam preparation to establish any additional requirement to meet the recommended
acid to sugar ratio.

● Add citric acid and sodium chloride to the mixture after analyzing sugar ratio

● Process the mixture to the desired TSS of 69% and check by using a hand Refractometer
(Hand Refractometer 58 to 90° Brix).

● Finally, mix the jam was with class II preservative sodium benzoate (100 ppm). Later, fill
the hot jam into sterilized glass bottles and left to cool and aluminum foiled. Then store
it at room temperature (27 to 32°C).

Mushroom Squash
● Wash the mushroom with clean running water to remove external dust particles and to
reduce the microbial load on the surface of the mushroom.

● Crush the mushroom in screw type juice extractor machine for extraction of juice.

● Add Amla (Indian gooseberry) juice and lemon juice along with the extract and filter the
juices through muslin cloth.

● Dissolve a calculated quantity of potassium meta-bi-sulphite (750 ppm) in a part of

water and mix well in the blended juice with the help of stirrer.

● Add sugar syrup made with the addition of citric acid, and water to the extracts at
different proportion.

● Dilute the squashes with purified RO water until it reached 52° brix in Refractometer
and adjust an acidity level of 0.16.

● Store the bottles containing squash at room temperature (28 ± 8°C) (Bora et al., 2014).
 Mushroom products 189

Mushroom candy
A fruit or vegetable impregnated and coated with sugar, subsequently taken out and dried
is called a candied fruit or vegetable.

● Wash fresh mushrooms after harvesting and halved longitudinally into two pieces.

● Blanch halves of mushrooms for 5 min in 0.05% of KMS solution and treat with sugar
for half an hour after draining.

● Give sugar treatment at the rate of 1.5 kg sugar per kg of blanched mushroom.

● Initially sugar has to be divided into three equal parts. On the first day, cover blanched
mushrooms with one part of sugar and kept for 24 h. Next day, cover the same
mushrooms with second part of sugar and are kept overnight and on the third day
remove mushrooms from the sugar syrup (boil 3rd part of sugar and 0.1% of citric acid
to bring its concentration up to 70°Brix).

● Mix the mushrooms with this syrup and again boil the contents for 5 min to bring its
concentration up to 72°Brix.

● After cooling, remove the mushrooms from the syrup and drained for half an hour.

● Place the drained mushrooms on the sorting tables to separate, to reject defective and
unwanted pieces.

● Finally subject the mushroom pieces to drying in a cabinet dryer at 60°C for about 10 h.
As soon as these become crispy, take out all mushrooms and packed in polypropylene
bags and sealed.

● The mushroom candy can be stored up to 8 months with excellent acceptability and
good chewable taste.

Mushroom Pickle
● Wash the mushrooms, slice and blanch in hot water (80ºC for 5 min) with 0.05% KMS
solution.

● Wash the blanched mushrooms in cold water for 2-3 times and the excess water is
drained off. Then subject the mushrooms to salt curing process, in which 10% sodium
chloride is added and kept overnight.

● On next day remove the excess water oozed-out of mushroom and mix spices &
preservatives to the desired taste and quality of mushroom pickle.

● Add various spices namely turmeric powder, black mustard seed powder (rai), red chili
powder, cumin seed powder, fenugreek seed powder, aniseed powder (suwa/ shopa),
black pepper, carom seed (ajwain), nigella seed (kalonji), fennel seed powder (saunf)
and mustard oil to prepare tasty pickle.
190 Virginia Paul

● Use acetic acid and sodium benzoate within the permitted limits are as preservatives.

● Maintain the mixture at 15-20ºC for 15 days for fermentation and further kept at 0-4oC to
obtain a pH of 3.9.

● This pickle can be stored up to one year in the lug bottles. Good quality pickle can also
be prepared from oyster mushroom.

Mushroom chips
● Wash the freshly harvested button mushrooms, slice (2 mm) and blanch in 2% brine
solution.

● Dip the mushrooms overnight in a solution of 0.1% of citric acid + 1.5% of NaCl + 0.3%
of red chili powder.

● After draining off the solution, put the mushrooms in cabinet dryer at 60ºC for 8 h for
drying. Then fry in the refined oil and prepare good quality chips.

● Garam masala and other spices can be spread over the chips to enhance the taste.
After spices mixing, pack the chips in polypropylene packets to maintain crispiness of
the chips.

Conclusion
In the recent years, there has been an increasing interest in “value added” agricultural
products in the market in the modern era. With so many fortified and value added products
available in the market, inclusion of products made from mushrooms needs to be emphasized.
Also, the retention of fresh mushrooms at various levels such as with growers, whole seller,
retailers and consumers results in deterioration in the quality of the mushrooms and great
economic loss. To overcome all these problems, adaption of appropriate post harvest
technologies and processing of surplus mushrooms in the form of novel value added
products is required. Although, mushrooms are considered rich source of protein, vitamins,
minerals (Ca, P, K, Mg, Zn, Se etc) and nutraceuticals, the presence of strong smell due to
the various volatile compounds is relished by some and not liked that much by others. The
processing of these mushrooms into different products could be the novel initiative towards
their consumption among all people in various age groups. Also, they can be easily stored
and can be used as nutrient reservoirs to meet the daily requirements of nutrients.

References
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 Mushroom products 191

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