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MushroomLink Bulletin September 2023

In this edition:

  • Feature: Can mushrooms really help lower our cholesterol?

  • Event wrap: Mushroom production workshop

  • Mushroom Fund Annual Investment Plans 2023/24

  • Podcast: Global perspectives from Erik de Groot

  • Podcast: Geoff Price and the American mushroom industry - part two

  • Resource: MU16003 Fact sheet: Internal Stipe Necrosis

  • Upcoming webinar

  • Shape the future of the mushroom industry - EOIs

  • Horticulture women leadership courses, scholarships open

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Project MU22010 – Mushroom International Study Tours – Inbound and Outbound

Part of the in- and outbound International Study Tours project, the inaugural Mushroom Production workshop, facilitated by Erik de Groot, was held in Adelaide and Sydney at the end of August

Figure 1: Robert Tolson at Premier Mushrooms explaining the room-filling procedure and machinery on his farm (Umberto Calvo)

US-based international consultant and mushroom expert Erik de Groot delivered the 2-day workshops to industry members eager to learn.

Elbows deep in compost and mushrooms since his childhood in the Netherlands, Erik’s knowledge and experience range from compost production to harvesting and everything in between, with clients spread across five continents.

With the aim to educate and inspire the Australian mushroom industry and promote collaborative problem solving, attendees were asked to work together in small groups. Participants were split into these groups depending on their role (compost production, growing, harvesting) to encourage conversation within their areas of expertise and generate new ideas and solutions to current issues.

The first day of the workshop focussed on compost production, phase II and III compost, tunnel and growing room filling, and the optimal conditions of the various stages (temperature, humidity, ventilation). The attendees involved in compost production were the most active throughout the first day, while growers and harvest managers were able to better understand the dynamics of the phases that precede their entry into the crop cycle.

Figure 2: Attendees were invited to "have a feel" of good quality peat with adequate moisture (Umberto Calvo)

Day 1 also included a farm visit to Costa Monarto in South Australia and Premier Mushrooms in the Hawkesbury, with the farm staff showing the facilities, machinery, and explaining the various steps of their mushroom production and management.

The second day was centred on growing and harvesting practises to optimise yield and quality, with a particular focus on harvest efficiency and planning.

At the end of the session each group had to elaborate on the actions they were planning on taking back to their farm with the newly acquired knowledge from the workshop.

The event was very well received by all attendees, both thanks to the broad scope of themes and the opportunity to expand their network vertically with people from their own farm and peers across different farms.

The opportunity to network with colleagues from different parts of one’s own workplace was viewed as an important outcome. Communication and collaboration throughout every step of the process, from compost production to growing and harvesting, can have a big impact on the overall result, and ultimately determine the farm’s and farmer’s bottom line.

At the end of the two-day workshop the participants were asked to complete an evaluation and suggestion form, which will assist AMGA as it plans the next events. Attention will be placed on the topics and issues identified by the Australian mushroom industry as the most relevant right now.

Additional resources

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MushroomLink Bulletin March 2023

In this edition

  • Autumn 2023 magazine out now

  • Feature: Horticulture meets robotics meets AI

  • Interview: Geoff Price from Giorgi Mushrooms

  • Podcast: CSIRO researcher Dr Damien Belobrajdic and nutritionist Dr Falvia Fayet-Moore (NRAUS) discuss the narrative around mushroom nutrition

  • Marketing update: 70,000 shoppers engaged with the in-store sampling program

  • Mushroom Link resources

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Hort Innovation Annual Fund report 2021/2022

What happened in the Mushroom Fund last year?

The 2021/2022 annual report for the Mushroom levy funds is out now.

The report covers what has been delivered this year, how the R&D levy has been invested over the year and how the fund is being managed.

A list of minor use permits for the potato industry, current as of the 15th of August 2022, is also provided.

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MushroomLink Bulletin October 2022

In this edition:

  • Fact sheet: Mushroom nutrition and health messages

  • Coming soon: AMGA conference podcasts and videos

  • September marketing snapshot

  • Collaborative Marketing Workshop with the Mushroom Industry

  • Hort Innovation Mushroom Fund annual report

  • Poultry litter – more than just a nitrogen source

  • Mushroom Production Waste Streams - Novel Approaches to Management and Value Creation

  • Pest and disease news alert

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Collaborative Marketing Workshop with the Mushroom Industry

By Emma Day, Marketing Manager HIA

Hort Innovation’s commitment to working more closely with the mushroom industry in matters relating to marketing came to realisation in early September, with the first co-design workshop. Earlier in the year the AMGA were invited to identify three to four industry representatives to be a part of the co-design panel.

The outcomes of the workshop will inform the development of evidence-based marketing strategies for 23-26, and an annual marketing investment plan for F23, ensuring that these plans are built on robust analysis, contain actions that clearly link to demand creation and facilitate transparent measurement and evaluation of actions and impact.

The workshops took place in Sydney, with representatives from the Mushroom Industry joining HIA Marketing, Data and Insights, and Industry Strategic Partnership personnel for two busy and productive days to jointly develop the marketing plans. The workshops were run by Jane Smith and Kylie Hudson, General Managers Marketing, with presentations from many of the HIA Mushroom team.

The Mushroom Industry was represented by Leah Bramich, GM AMGA, Kyle Davies, Marland Mushrooms, Georgia Beattie, Bulla Park, Tim Archibald, White Prince, with apologies from Elisa Siliato from Costa.

Day One focused on a big data download and share. Presentations were given on the broader market context of consumer’s lives, industry feedback on important issues, the retail and trading environment in which we all operate, the consumer and shopper, needs and occasions, and a FY22 activity evaluation. As a group we then prioritised our learnings and implications and agreed on the focus for our plan and who we should target.

Day Two we regrouped and then defined the big shifts required from consumers to grow the Mushroom category and set our vision and goals according to what our category would stand for in the minds of consumers. With clear objectives, we could define the key strategic pillars which will underpin the activities arising from this marketing plan.

 A brainstorming session resulted in a detailed one-year plan, as well as a more future-looking horizon plan. This was followed by the business of budgeting and how we might allocate the marketing funds for year one.

With all this valuable input, the HIA marketing team will now create the detail of the plan around our agreed vision, goals, and strategic pillars. The plan will be presented to the SIAP on 20 September for approval.

In the meantime, the first part of the plan details the 12 key facts gained from the data download on day one. These insights are the key pieces of data that drove our decision making as a team, and we thought worth sharing with the industry.

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GROWING THE FUTURE TOGETHER

The 2022 AMGA conference

By Dr Jenny Ekman

At the end of October, the mushroom industry will meet in Adelaide for the first industry conference in several years. With a diverse speaker program, the conference provides a unique opportunity to learn about new advances in research, farm practice and marketing initiatives, as well as offering great networking opportunities.

This year, the AMGA conference will host suppliers, growers, farm owners and well-respected national and international speakers.

Following farm tours on day one, day two of the conference (Thursday 27 October) is dedicated to

international speakers. A wide range of presentations will focus on topics critical to the ongoing sustainability of the industry, including harvest mechanisation, new variety development and alternative casing materials.

One of the great range of international guests are profiled below.

Picking the best from harvest practices

Mushrooms are already a technology-intense crop. More than any other, they rely on precise control of

substrate, climate, nutrition, and irrigation. Many aspects have been mechanised, with computer controlled compost production, bulk phase 3 compost, automatic casers and fillers and many other technological aids.

However, the most important part of cropping – harvest – is still entirely done by hand. Many growers were already struggling with rising labour costs before COVID-19.

In recent months, the difficult situation resulting from numerous unfilled positions has been exasperated by illness-derived labour shortages. Added to the major cost of labour to growers is now the almost daily worry of worker availability.

For more than 30 years engineers have been trying to develop a robotic mushroom harvester. This is no easy task. Mushrooms need to be picked gently, trimmed appropriately, and placed into grades according to size and shape. A firm touch or sharp edge can easily disfigure or bruise mushrooms. Furthermore, as mushrooms are not regularly spaced on the beds, picking single mushrooms from clustered groups poses another special challenge.

Initial robotic harvester designs had limited success. Silsoe Research Institute developed an early robotic harvester in 19931. A suction cap attached to each mushroom, which then twisted and lifted the mushroom. While it could locate 84% of mushroom targets, only 57% were picked successfully. Overlapped or closely packed mushrooms were the most difficult to pick.

Technology has come a long way since the 1990s, and so has the search for robotic mushroom harvesting. A quick Google search reveals at least 10 companies (and universities) involved in developing commercial harvest technology for mushroom farms.

Any such technology is inevitably going to be capital-intensive. A potentially less expensive approach is to develop ways to increase efficiency of human pickers. This may mean using single layer beds, or moveable and/or tilting trays.

One company working on both options is GTL Europe. The company was initially formed in 1994 by Jack Lemmen as a tiny start-up in a shed beside his parents’ house. In 2013 he merged with three companies: Geraedts, Thilot and Lemmen. This has given the larger group expertise in air handling and control, composting and growing equipment, and waste management.

GTL Europe is now a globally recognised company involved in all levels of mushroom cultivation. It offers solutions to compost producers and farms including construction design, climate control systems, machinery, and automation solutions.

Jack Lemmen will be presenting at the 2022 AMGA conference on some of the latest developments in automation on mushroom farms. According to Jack, “The tilting shelves system was just the beginning. It is really the starting point towards a fully integrated harvesting system. Technological developments such as robotics and artificial intelligence are creating an array of opportunities to further optimise the harvesting process.”

Huge improvements have been made in scanning, grading, and packing equipment for many fresh horticultural industries. Perhaps it is time for a great leap forward for mushrooms. Jack is certainly well qualified to give insight into what new technologies are becoming available, and potential benefits for the mushroom industry. It is certain to be a fascinating subject.

This is an excerpt for the MushroomLink Spring 2022 magazine, click here to read the full article and publication

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The Industry testing program: Rebooted!

Written By: Dr Jenny Ekman

TESTING TO PROVE, OR TESTING TO IMPROVE?

Among the seemingly endless list of compliance requirements that all fresh produce businesses face, verification testing is often questioned from both a cost and value perspective. “Why do we have to test” is a common question, and for most, the answer would be “because our customers say we have to”. While the answer is not wrong, the driver for compliance is misguided.

Anyone in the business of growing and supplying food to consumers understands that consumers trust the food they buy is safe and rely on the integrity of both process and product.

The seemingly endless range of testing for heavy metals, chemical residues and microbial contamination won’t itself make the product safer. However, it will provide assurance and surety that the processes followed deliver a product that is free from residues and safe to eat, factors that are critically important at a business, industry and ultimately customer level.

The Testing Program

For some years now, the Australian Mushroom Growers’ Association (AMGA) has organised competitively priced testing of fresh mushrooms and inputs (water, compost) for members. The testing commenced in the early 2000s, with the program including all the microbial, chemical residue and heavy metal tests required by food safety certification programs.

As well as providing keen pricing, the advantage of using the industry program is that all test results are reviewed and reported back accompanied by an explanation of what they mean. In other words, whether any of the results raised concerns and what should happen next if they did.

The de-identified results gathered through the program over the last 15 years are also a valuable resource for the industry as a whole. For example, from 186 tests of fresh mushrooms in the previous five years, there has been only a single detection of E. coli (which was <100 CFU/g), no detections of Salmonella spp. and no detections of Listeria monocytogenes.

Such data provides objective, defensible evidence that growers are following good practices and mushrooms are safe to eat.

Until now, the on-request testing procedure was that growers downloaded a form from the AMGA website, filled it in and sent it back to the Association. A request would then be made for a test kit to be sent to the grower from the lab. The grower took the samples, filled in the analysis request form, and returned it to the lab for testing. While this has worked well enough, it certainly added unnecessary steps in the process, an extra layer of complexity and, therefore, an opportunity for error.

Now, with the support of levy-funded project MU20000 - Extension and Adoption for Food Safety, Quality and Risk Management, every mushroom business can conduct one full suite of chemical and microbial tests each year – for FREE.

The testing on fresh mushrooms includes chemical residues (CR006), heavy metals (ESM-02) and microbial contamination (E. coli, Salmonella spp and L. monocytogenes). The program also includes a water test for E. coli (CFU/100ml).

This industry-wide service is designed to encourage verification testing to support individual businesses. It will also strengthen the pool of de-identified test data available, helping identify and manage potential risks.

The Process

Simply email your request to the Food Safety (FS) project team, and the kit will arrive in the mail accompanied by instructions, a pre-filled analysis request form and a return pre-paid satchel.

This new system also means that absolute confidentiality is ensured regarding the results. Only the FS project team will know which grower code links to which individual farm.

Again, results will be accompanied by an interpretation of what they mean. For efficiency, testing through this program will be available three times a year. The first round of free testing will commence at the start of April. The following testing rounds will be in August and December.

Email Dr Jenny Ekman to receive your FREE chemical, microbial and heavy metal test kit, helping the industry demonstrate the high standards of Australian mushrooms and providing you with the data you need for an audit.

The current testing program arrangements will continue for those businesses who need to test other inputs or test more frequently. This will now follow the new and improved administrative process.

An updated cost schedule will be available on request.

Lessons from chemical and heavy metal testing

Just like forensic investigators on TV, chemical residue or heavy metal test results can provide vital information on inputs such as compost and compost ingredients, supplements and chemicals.

When residues are detected, they are usually well below the maximum residue level (MRL). However, when there are detections, it is worth considering at what percentage of the MRL they are and reviewing factors such as inputs, use patterns and application rates. this approach ensures total control of products and processes, in the most cost-effective way.

Lessons from microbial testing

Close monitoring of microbial test results can often pre-empt an issue before it becomes a problem. Indicator organisms detected at low levels in products or inputs can help identify issues with infrastructure, cleaning and hygiene practices.

A problem understood is a problem solved, and testing produces the opportunity for this understanding

This article was originally published in the 1st issue 2022 edition of the Australian Mushrooms Journal

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