Mushrooms provides a valuable protein for food products

The GUDP (Green Development and Demonstration Program) project MycoProtein aims to use the edible oyster mushrooms to produce ingredients with umami flavour and high protein content by utilising side streams from sugar production.

The oyster mushrooms can be used to convert side streams from e.g. sugar production to ingredients with a high content of valuable protein and umami. Thereby, the GUDP project MycoProtein pave the way for a more resource-efficient utilisation of agricultural crops than the one we know today.

Utilising side streams

The project has received a grant from GUDP to develop a plant where oyster mushrooms are grown in fermentation tanks on an aqueous solution of side streams from sugar production. All side streams must be harvested, dried and used as ingredients in other foods.

Today, side streams such as beet pulp and molasses from sugar production are primarily used in animal feed, but by utilising more as food, beets suddenly become a much more interesting crop.

Contributing to reduce meat consumption

The dried mushroom product can be used in plant-based foods and other processed food products to increase the content and quality of protein.

Project manager Steen Brock from Microbiota Food Aps expects that the new ingredient will be interesting as an additive to processed plant-based products.

“It is widely recognized that meat production is highly climate-damaging and that it is an inefficient way of producing food,” says Steen Brock and emphasises how we globally need to find out how to produce more food while limiting climate impact.

Therefore, utilising mushrooms as a source to protein can be a big step on the way to a more sustainable food supply.

Source: Ministry of Environment (in Danish)