from Saint Joseph’s University of Philadelphia. Lang researches and identifies consumer trends, particularly consumer behaviour regarding food. Attention for fresh, healthy (and exotic) food is increasing in the USA, but according to Lang ‘local’ is still a hot item. He indicated that the market is split into two parts: “On the one hand demanding, wealthy consumers who are willing to pay more for premium, organically grown produce and on the other, average consumers who want help preparing their daily meals using recipes and the certainty of healthy food, without having to pay more. As a producer you have to think in a far more market and ser- vice-oriented manner.”
Steve Solomon (FSInsights) presented an interesting contribution about the recent development of a hamburger that comprises 50% mushrooms: “The two iconic American products are hamburgers and meatballs, both of which are high in fat and calories. We have been busy since 2011 trying to promote our mix of mince and mushrooms in burgers and meatballs. This results in a 50% decrease in the fat and calorie content. Fantastic news for the sector of society that suffers from severe obesity, and also great news for the mushroom sector. Taste panels results even reveal that the products taste better with the addition of mushrooms, as mushrooms naturally enhance the flavour of meat. We are
currently rolling out these products all over the States and meat producers are also interested. I am convinced the Mushroom Burger has a bright future. In the USA 16 billion hamburgers are sold every year, and if we could fill part of them with mushrooms...”
Tweaking the ‘doubles’ Jan Gielen, climate expert at DLV, visited CJ Mushrooms in Kennett Square before the conference to make a case study of moisture control and air distribution in the growing rooms known as ‘Pennsylvania Doubles’. These rooms generally have four rows of shelving, with seven layers of beds. In these doubles, air is distributed via three ducts, while just above the fourth bed a wooden walkway is positioned to allow access to the mushrooms in the upper beds for harvesting. Firstly, Gielen spoke on evaporation in general. “If the correct pattern of evaporation is disrupted, mushroom quality will quickly suffer, as shown by bacterial blotch and scaling. These problems become apparent when the mushrooms are already growing on the beds, but they generally start at pinning. If the moisture control in a room cannot be managed properly, you will often be faced by these problems. The problem can frequently be solved by decreasing the moisture content of the inlet air, certainly in places with a humid outdoor climate, as is the case in Pennsylvania during summer. For proper dehumidification it is crucial to cool first, and then start re-heating again. There are also ‘Pennsylvania Doubles’ without heaters, so they will be unable to do this.”
Case study
“In the case of CJ Mushrooms the fan capacity appeared to be sufficient, with 22.5 m3/h/m2
or De trade fair has been opened.
“We’ve never been to such a fabulous
location before”
Conversation between Mark Lang and Bart Minor (r), speakers at the conference. In the back left we see Maarten Bos (Ten Cate), Stephen Allen (Monaghan) and right, Brendan McKenna and Joe Caldwell (Monterey).
MUSHROOM BUSINESS 9
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