Dried Cultivated Mushrooms as the Valuable Source of Proteins and Amino Acids

Abstract

The analysis of nutritional structure in Ukrainian population is the evidence of the constant food protein deficit that can be forecast for the nearer future. Therefore, the search for new protein sources, increase of food protein production, and formation of protein structure are the essential and complicated tasks to the food industry, in particular its healthy food branch. Cultivated mushrooms are believed to be the rich food protein source, since they contain more that 30 percents of protein (calculated by dry substance), all the indispensable amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins and trace elements. Alongside, the potentials of cultivated mushrooms are still used insufficiently, owing to the fact that, upon studying their biological characteristics, the scientists prevalently limit the research objects to revelation of the general protein amount, rather than deciphering their amino acid content, the balance between dispensable and indispensable amino acids and their scrutinizing to the reference protein proposed by FAO / WHO. This situation would significantly impede the estimation of the main quality index for every protein, which is their biological value. Hence the trend chosen for the research and proven by the objectives formulated is relevant in terms of both practice and theory. The purpose of this article is to study the protein and amino acid content of dried cultivated mushrooms in order to expand the area of using them in food technologies and satisfying the consumers’ needs in easily-absorbed protein component of diets. There were researched the consumer properties of champignon half products (obtained by low-temperature drying method (at 45 °С) with subsequent dispersion) by the indices of protein biological value, protein fractioning, and mass parts of indispensable and dispensable amino acids. The main tasks of the research are to study the proteins of low temperature dried mushrooms in terms of their solubility, to define the impact of the method to process mushrooms on the changes in their protein faction distribution, to investigate the amino acid content of dried champignon proteins, including the proportion of free and constrained amino acids, and to give the sensory characteristics to mushroom powders produced. There was shown that dried cultivated mushroom contain all eight indispensable amino acids, which comprises about 46 percents of their general amount. The sum of dispensable amino acids is equal to 54 percents. These data are the crucially important index of consumer properties of mushroom half products, taking into account that the maximal biological effect from the proteins is reached at the proportion of indispensable and dispensable amino acids of 42 : 58, which is quite close to the results obtained in this research.