Valorchamp

High-quality valorization of mushroom cultivation residual streams

In Flanders, various types of edible mushrooms are cultivated, with the white button mushroom being by far the most important in terms of production volume. However, mushroom cultivation also generates a significant residual stream, namely the mushroom stems, and valorizing these would be a valuable circular step forward.

The Valorchamp project is a collaboration between research institutions, mushroom growers, and companies in the food sector that aims to valorize the stems of mushrooms and oyster mushrooms into high-quality components, such as ingredients for food (spreads, flavor enhancers) or bioactive components (preservatives, edible protective films). This builds on insights from the earlier CHampITINE project, which showed that chitin from mushroom stems can be converted into the highly sought-after biopolymer chitosan.

An important step within the project was the development of a zero-waste extraction process, allowing mushroom residual streams to be optimally utilized. A first scale-up to several kilos of end product was tested and yielded positive results, offering promising perspectives for processing mushroom waste in the entire food industry.

Additionally, we made progress in the conversion of chitin to chitosan, and discovered how to produce chitosan with specific properties, thereby significantly increasing the number of possible applications.