Project
GreenCHAINge 4: Mushrooms
Are mushrooms grown on alternative or enriched compost compositions less sensitive to loss of quality in the chain? This question is the central question of this subproject.
Production, distribution, and sale of predictable, consistent, good quality white mushrooms cannot always be guaranteed. Recent research by Wageningen Food & Biobased Research and regular shelf-life tests in practice indicate that the quality in store is not always the same despite fairly optimal procedures in relation to picking, handling, refrigeration, logistics, and packing.
A second objective is to examine the chain (including colour measurement) to gain a better understanding of irregular harvest quality, and to link it to the subsequent chain performance. This insight is required to unravel the entanglement of cultivation variables, compost quality, and postharvest conditions. Only by gaining more insight into the current performance of the fresh food chain can the value of new, quality-focused compost concepts be established.
Expected results
- Insight into the primary influencing factors on quality in the chain, through monitoring and data analysis of existing datasets;
- Development of objective quality measurements;
- Development of a quality scale based on those insights.
Achieved results
This project was concluded with a final seminar on Thursday 14 March 2019. The results achieved by this subproject are recorded in the following factsheet: