Recent trends in submerged cultivation of mushrooms and their application as a source of nutraceuticals and food additives

Nowadays, mushroom bioactive compounds production by submerged cultivation has attracted great interest. Controlling culture conditions in bioreactors makes submerged cultivation more reliable than fruiting body one. Recent research has shown that many edible mushroom strains could be cultivated in submerged liquid culture producing high biomass content and a variety of bioactive compounds such as proteins, enzymes, lipids, and carbohydrates in a safe way for using them in the food industry. Focusing on the last 5 year-research, in this review, a detailed description of submerged cultivation processes used will be presented, while different bioactive compounds derived from edible mushrooms will be recorded. Moreover, the use of bioreactors and the application of different culture conditions like temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, inoculum, and agitation in a scale-up process, leading to the exploitation of mushrooms mycelia as vegan protein sources, nutraceuticals, food supplements, and food flavor agents by the food industry, will be highlighted and discussed. The ability to enhance the concentration of amino acids responsible for umami taste or estimate the desired concentration of substances that cause inedibility could lead to safe and high-quality biomass and bioactive compounds. This would impel FDA and EFSA to approve more food products related to mushrooms, which is of great importance, especially for the food industry.