Vegan shrimp alternative made with pink oyster and lion's mane mushrooms: Nutritional profiles, presence of conjugated phenolic acids, and prototyping

Flavia Meyer; Aline Hutmacher; Beverly Lu; Nadja Steiger; Laura Nyström; Joan Oñate Narciso

doi:10.1016/j.crfs.2023.100572

Vegan shrimp alternative made with pink oyster and lion's mane mushrooms: Nutritional profiles, presence of conjugated phenolic acids, and prototyping

Curr Res Food Sci. 2023 Aug 19:7:100572. doi: 10.1016/j.crfs.2023.100572. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Flavia Meyer¹, Aline Hutmacher¹, Beverly Lu¹, Nadja Steiger¹, Laura Nyström¹, Joan Oñate Narciso^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Food Biochemistry, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zürich, Schmelzbergstrasse 9, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland.
² Department of Food Technology, Engineering and Science, Universitat de Lleida - Agrotecnio CeRCA Center, Avda. Rovira Roure 191, 25198, Lleida, Spain.

Abstract

The increasing demand for seafood is responsible for many environmental impacts, especially caused by aquaculture. Shrimp accounts for a substantial part of seafood production and therefore also for negative effects associated with it. This work aimed to develop a mushroom-based shrimp analogue with a texture similar to shrimp using the fruiting bodies of pink oyster mushroom (Pleurotus djamor) and lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus). Three flushes of pink oyster mushrooms and a first flush of lion's mane mushroom were analysed regarding their nutritional composition and whether they are suitable shrimp alternatives. The two mushrooms are rich in proteins (∼32% and ∼26% w/w for the first flush of pink oyster and lion's mane, respectively). The protein content of pink oyster mushroom decreased and the dietary fibre content increased across the different flushes. The antioxidants in the mushrooms were extracted using different methods, whereby aqueous extracts mostly excelled in terms of antioxidant activity. Hydrolysis confirmed the presence of conjugated p-coumaric acid in both mushrooms and possibly conjugated caffeic acid in pink oyster. Texture analysis results of the prototypes were close to the values of fried shrimp. However, although the sensory qualities of the final prototypes were perceived as similar to shrimp, further improvements in the recipe are necessary to make the prototypes indistinguishable from shrimp.

Keywords: Conjugated phenolic acid; Lion’s mane; Nutritional profile; Pink oyster mushroom; Texture analyser.