Cultivating mushrooms produces a lot of waste. For every kilogram of mushrooms produced, about three kilograms of soil-like material containing straw, manure and peat is left behind. In the EU, this results in more than 3 billion kilograms of waste per year.
More mushroom waste could soon be given a second life though thanks to new innovations. Dr. Bart van der Burg, Director of Innovation at BioDetection Systems in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and his team are interested in discarded mushroom parts, such as stems, and deformed mushrooms, which are part of the cultivation leftovers. They are aiming to extract components such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats and chitin—a fibrous substance—from them as part of the Funguschain project. Their goal is to incorporate these extracts into new products such as novel foods, cosmetics and bioplastics. “I think we will end up with at least three products coming out of this project,” said Dr. van der Burg.
The team thinks mushroom waste could be reduced by up to 40% with the products they are creating. But they are also investigating other uses, such as composting and biogas production, which utilise all the soil-like leftovers from mushroom cultivation and could increase the amount of waste that is repurposed. These applications are more straightforward and would be easier to commercialise says Dr. van der Burg. “That’s one reason why we are still investing in that part.”
Source: Phys.org
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