Safety assays and nutritional values of mycoprotein produced by Fusarium venenatum IR372C from date waste as substrate

Abstract

BACKGROUNDNutritional and environmental benefits of mycoprotein verify its beneficial role on the health of humankind in the next decades. Agro‐industrial wastes can be used as cheap substrates to decrease the total cost of product. However, fungi may produce toxins or lead to allergic reactions in consumers. Therefore, the study of the safety and nutritional aspects of this product are very important.RESULTSFusarium venenatum IR372C was cultured on date wastes and ammonium salts in submerge fermentation. The safety and nutritional issues of produced mycoprotein were investigated including allergy tests and analyses of toxins, as well as existence of toxin genes, and content of heavy metals, metals, amino acids and fatty acids. The results showed that fumonisin genes in F. venenatum IR372C remain without any gene expression during 1 week fermentation. Zearalenone and deoxynivalenol cannot be detected in the fermentation medium after 3 weeks. Prick tests on 30 volunteers demonstrated no sensitivities to mycoprotein. The content of lead was 658 μg kg−1 as the highest heavy metal followed by arsenic, cadmium and mercury at 161, 30.57 and 0 μg kg−1, respectively. Produced mycoprotein includes essential amino acids at appropriate contents and the ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acid was nearly 2:1. Also, calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc were found in mycoprotein, which could have health beneficial impacts on consumers.CONCLUSIONThis study has provided information on safety aspects of mycoprotein production by F. venentaum IR372C from date wastes. However, further studies with focus on long‐term clinical benefits of diets containing mycoprotein are necessary. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry

Safety of Alternative Proteins: Technological, Environmental and Regulatory Aspects of Cultured Meat, Plant-Based Meat, Insect Protein and Single-Cell Protein

“…Agri-food wastes can potentially be utilized as a nutrient source in the production of mycoprotein. In one study, date wastes were used as a fermentation substrates for F. venenatum, and the authors found that the resulting mycoproteins did not result in allergic reactions in tested human subjects, that there was an absence of fumonisin gene expression in the starter culture and that no mycotoxins (zearalenone and deoxynivalenol) were detected in the fermentation medium, although low levels of lead (658 µg/kg), arsenic (161 µg/kg) and cadmium (30.57 µg/kg) were reported [187]. Future research can aim at assessing other waste materials for their potential use in mycoprotein production.…”

Protein and Sport: Alternative Sources and Strategies for Bioactive and Sustainable Sports Nutrition

“…In the last decade, mycoproteins have emerged as an environmentally friendly and cheap source, since it can be synthetised with agronomical by-products and its carbon footprint is, at least, 10 times lower than traditional meats (73). Furthermore, mycoproteins appeared not to be potentially allergenic (74) and they could exert benefits related to sports nutrition and cardiometabolic health, such as insulinemia and glycemia attenuation and muscle adaptation (72).…”

Influence of environmental and genetic factors on food protein quality: current knowledge and future directions

“…There is also the risk of toxin production by the organism, absence of which needs to be routinely tested [47]. This could also bring challenges for modifying the SCP production process, as changing the growth substrate or other condition might activate toxin production [49]. Benefits of SCP over traditional animal protein include lower carbon footprint, land use and water consumption and the potential to use industrial food by-products as growth substrate [48,49].…”

“…This could also bring challenges for modifying the SCP production process, as changing the growth substrate or other condition might activate toxin production [49]. Benefits of SCP over traditional animal protein include lower carbon footprint, land use and water consumption and the potential to use industrial food by-products as growth substrate [48,49]. However, to date SCPs for human consumption are grown using food grade substrates, with associated costs [47].…”