Mycology 2019

Fungal Biotechnology

^{Biotechnology which can simply be defined as the application of living organisms and their components to industrial products and processes is not an industry in itself, but an important technology that will have a large impact on many different industrial sectors in the futureSome of the most important organisms used in biotechnology are fungi. Cultivation of edible mushrooms outdoors has been practised for hundreds if not thousands of years. More consistent crops and much higher yields were obtained following the development of pure spawns, sterilisation/pasteurisation technology, a better understanding of substrate requirements and the use of environmentally controlled mushroom houses. A recent innovation in food technology has been the development of Quorn myco-protein from a filamentous fungus.}