TASTEFUNgi Project Online Training Program: Macrofungi Utilization in Food Industry

Written and visual training materials produced within the scope of the TASTEFUNgi Project have been made available to users for e-learning purposes without limitation. Access to this program is completely free, the only pre-condition is to register on the training platform. The e-learning system has been designed in accordance with SCORM standards in the field. Users can plan their learning processes according to their own convenience during the training. Throughout the program, there is a test at the end of each subject or unit that measures the participant's achievement and comprehension. The training program accepts the threshold of success for these tests as 60 percent. The purpose of these tests is not to force the participant to learn, but to obtain feedback from them and to make necessary updates in the program if the desired results are not achieved.

The training curriculum supports video lectures with handouts, additional learning resources, and reference lists. Participants can access these additional references when they desire a deeper learning process. For peer communication in the virtual environment, the training program uses the sharing of individual assignments and outputs through the forum.

Mushroom Varieties and Worldwide Production

Nutritional Compositions

Functional Properties of Mushrooms and Current Applications

Mushrooms are often thought to have little nutritional value, but many species are particularly rich in fiber and vitamins, as well as have particular health-promoting and disease-preventing properties. Despite the many health benefits associated with them, mushrooms have been added to various products to enhance the quality characteristics and health benefits of processed foods.

Mushrooms are added to various products in order to increase the quality properties and beneficial effects of processed foods, and the mushroom industry is developing day by day and the food areas they are applied are increasing.

UNIT I. Additional Training References

Mushrooms have no cuticle to protect them from environment changes (Moon and Lo, 2014). Therefore, during the postharvest period, various physiological and morphological changes occur. This changes cause continuous quality degradation such as cap expansion and opening, stipe elongation, reproductive spore shedding, weight loss, cell deterioration, browning, and texture damage (Xue et al., 2017) Several factors have an impact on mushrooms’ quality during postharvest. These factors can be divided into two categories, internal and external factor. The internal factors related to mushroom itself. These factors are water activity, respiration rate, and microbial activity and the external factors related to storage conditions such as storage temperature and relative humidity (Zhang et al., 2018).

-References have been listed in study guide-

This video lesson consider Physical Methods of Mushroom preserving: Drying, Cooling, Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), Irradiation, Pulsed electric field (PEF), Ultrasound.

UNIT 2. ADDITIONAL TRAINING REFERENCES

Depending on the mechanism of action mushrooms are dried in various ways. The traditional method is to utilize solar energy however, it is hard to control and time-consuming. Mostly preferred conventional drying method is hot air drying (Tian et al., 2016). It is basically flowing hot dry air around 60 oC to evaporate water and transport it by air out. Even though it is a practical and well-known method with low cost, it may result in nutritional and quality losses due to long processing times (Kantrong et al., 2014). Some alternative methods appear such as microwave, vacuum or freeze-drying to achieve improvements in product quality and process efficiency (Lombraña et al., 2010).

-References are listed in Study Guide-

Freezing is one of the ancient preservation methods that enable prolonged shelf life of foods while maintaining relatively higher quality through storage. Mushrooms are high in water content and thus they are highly perishable. The water content of the mushrooms could change between 80-95% (Kansci et al., 2003). The quality of a frozen mushroom should be discussed from the beginning, the harvest. Mushrooms should be precooled to 1-4 °C as soon as possible by the supplier and transported afterwards at this temperature condition (Tressler et al., 1968b). To get ready for freezing; mushrooms are first selected, sorted, discriminated from foreign objects, evaluated for freshness, trimmed and transported to the cleaning unit (Xu et al., 2017). This video elaborates mushroom freezing processes. 

-References has been listes in study guide- 

Canning is a technique by which the mushrooms can be stored for longer periods up to a year and most of the international trade in mushrooms is done in this form. The canning process can be divided into various unit operations namely cleaning, blanching, filling, sterilization, cooling, labeling and packaging.

UNIT III. Additional Training References