Improving overall postharvest quality of straw mushroom using an accessible and low-cost strategy

Abstract

Straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) is one of most extensively cultivated mushrooms in Asia with a delicious taste and high nutritional value. However, its special physiological features lead to the rapid loss of its overall quality and marketability during 2-day storage. The present study proposed an accessible and low-cost strategy with industrial-scale potency for long-time postharvest and long-distance distribution by designing a temperature and humidity-controlled walk-in equipment and optimizing the working conditions. The optimized conditions for postharvest with the designed equipment were obtained as pre-cooling treatment at 20 ℃, small size of plastic basket, one-layer stack mode, storage temperature of 15 °C and relative humidity of 90%. Under these conditions, the straw mushrooms maximally maintained the overall sensory/physical/chemical postharvest quality including highest firmness, soluble protein and soluble sugar contents. Further results proved that the optimized conditions maintained the quality by retaining free water, down-regulating the respiration rate and activities/transcriptional levels of key enzymes associated with respiratory metabolism, and maintaining the energy balance in fruiting bodies.