Mushrooms as Functional and Nutritious Food Ingredients for Multiple Applications
Seung Woon You, Roberta Targino Hoskin, Slavko Komarnytsky, Marvin Moncada
Abstract
The interest in mushrooms as functional ingredients has increased in the past decade. Mushrooms have low fat content and high fiber and protein contents and are natural sources of valuable food molecules such as ergosterol, polyphenols, terpene and terpenoids, and mannitol and trehalose. Mushrooms have been used as ingredients in meat- and starch-based food formulations with varying degrees of success, but their technological and functional performances in food formulations are yet to be investigated and fully explored for applications directed to the emerging alternative, meat-free, clean-label marketplace. Therefore, in this review, the current scientific data regarding the attributes of mushrooms that elicit their unique functional and nutritional properties, their relevance to the food industry, and potential opportunities for developing innovative, good-tasting, protein-rich foods from mushrooms are presented and discussed.