Study on development of value added products from oyster mushroom (Pleurotus florida)

Abstract

Oyster mushroom ( Pleurotus florida ) is highly perishable poses serious marketing problems in the peak seasonal period as well as commercial production resulting in gluts and distress sales. With a view to ameliorate the problem, processing of mushroom to develop some novel value-added products was undertaken from the fresh oyster mushrooms. Very good quality of oyster mushroom preserves ( murraba ) was successfully prepared. Besides, the pickle preparation from the fresh mushroom through the traditional technique, success was achieved in making products like mushroom ketch-up, mushroom candy and mushroom chips. All the value added products were found to be organeptically acceptable for their colour, appearance, flavour, taste, texture and overall acceptability on the 9 point Hedonic scale by a panel of ten judges. The evaluation of the products was done every month for the period of six months for the above said quality characters. Value added product named mushroom preserve was rated with the highest sensory score followed by mushroom chips. Preparation of these products will not only reduces losses but will also enhance the income by value- addition and better marketing of this horticulture 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 can be used as a supplementary food item 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. During peak harvest season, market gets saturated quickly and growers resort to distress sale. Consequently, unsold mushrooms become a total loss. Hence, methods need to develop for the production of processed products from mushrooms.