Quality Preservation of Air‐Dried Sliced Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) by Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia Mill.) Essential Oil

Abstract

AbstractThe present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of chitosan (2%), ascorbic acid (40 g/L), citric acid (40 g/L), lavender oil (70%), cinnamon oil (50%) and heat treatment to enhance the quality and shelf‐life of sliced dried button mushroom (Agaricus bisporous) stored at 4°C for 19 days. Based on a completely randomized design, the experiment included seven treatments and four replications. Mushroom weight loss, soluble solids content (SSC), firmness, browning index (BI), vitamin C, pH, overall acceptability, and shelf‐life were measured. Lavender oil treatment was found to result in comparatively the most favorable effects in terms of BI, overall acceptability, marketability, weight loss, longevity and firmness of mushrooms. The study recommends lavender oil treatment as an economical processing strategy for preserving the quality and extending the storage life of ready‐to‐use air‐dried sliced mushrooms.Practical ApplicationsUnfortunately, mushrooms are highly perishable and tend to lose their quality during 3 days at room temperature and 8 days under refrigeration conditions in the fresh form, because they have no cuticle to protect them from physical damage, microbial attack and water loss as well as their high respiration rate. Their high respiration rate and high water content make them prone to microbial spoilage and enzymatic browning. Due to the lack of knowledge about an appropriate treatment for preserving the quality of sliced mushrooms, particularly air‐dried mushrooms and because most of studies have focused on only a few number of qualitative traits of mushrooms this study was conducted to develop an efficient cost‐effective procedure applicable for improving most of the postharvest qualitative traits of ready‐to‐use air‐dried mushrooms with safe natural compounds.