A method to efficiently develop vitamin-D enriched mushrooms

Important results from the project

Vitamin-D is an essential that boosts the immune system, enhances calcium absorption and bone strength, and plays vital roles in human metabolism. Recent research suggests that vitamin-D may have other benefits such as protecting against colds and fighting depression. In Sweden, we face cloudy and short winter days and require making up the lack of daily vitamin-D levels. Having vitamin-D enriched mushrooms would benefit many people who can not obtain the daily dose in their diets. Östgötasvamp AB as one of the Sweden´s largest mushroom growers plans to produce vitamin-D mushrooms.

Expected long term effects

While vitamin-D enriched mushroom is already an authorized food in European Union, to introduce this novel food in Sweden requires approvals from National Food Agency in Sweden and European Commission. The quality aspects comprise of consistency of achieving the vitamin-D levels as claimed, freshness and appearance of the mushrooms, retention of typical mushroom flavor, odor and texture, mushroom nutrition components and assessment before and after UV treatment. All these assessments have been done and a full application to register this novel food in Sweden has been submitted.

Approach and implementation

The study covered UV pulsed light on a continual flow belt with batch treatment using fixed UV lamp on Agaricus bisporus mushrooms. The company is now semi-ready to introduce vitamin-D enriched mushroom to the Swedish market upon receiving the acceptance from authorities. A thorough study has been done on the proper packaging for this product. We have now chosen the packaging candidate in which the quality of the mushroom is kept and our concerns regarding echo-friendly alternative is fulfilled.