Edible mushrooms: Functional foods or functional ingredients? A focus on Pleurotus spp.

The increasing consumer demands for healthier and more sustainable foods has pushed the food industry in the constant research of new foods, new functional ingredients and bioactive compounds, whose production can be considered as far as sustainable. In this sense, application of the edible mushrooms has attracted the attention of industries because of their good nutritional quality, simple and economically affordable growth, taste, flavor, and textural properties, as well as the presence of bioactive compounds with positive effects on human health. Among edible mushrooms, Pleurotus spp. are considered among the most popular all over the world. Their cultivation is very simple and sustainable, because Pleurotus spp. efficiently grow on several substrates and can degrade various lignocellulosic waste materials. This means that Pleurotus mushrooms can be cultivable all over the world. From the inclusion in food products as extracts to the incorporation as fresh or into powder form, several works have been published in the literature concerning the use of mushrooms functional ingredients. However, mushroom addiction can modify functional and physicochemical properties of the supplemented foods, hence the main challenge to overcome is to not negatively affect the sensory properties. Although many scientific works have been published on the matter, further research is needed to better understand the role of mushrooms as functional ingredients, due to the different results reported. This review aims for providing the more recent information about Pleurotus incorporation into foods, with a critical vision looking forward to the future, without forgetting overview of the more recent literature about Pleurotus spp. nutritional value and their healthy promoting compounds.