SBIR Phase I: Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture: Enhancing Post-Harvest Quality, Reducing Contamination, and Easing Sterilization for Value Added Mushroom Producers

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to develop a more efficient and sustainable way of producing mushrooms in a novel farming set-up. Currently consumer demand for mushrooms exceeds supply, and demand is growing very fast in the US and across the world. Some challenges faced by specialty mushroom growers in operating their businesses include the resource intensive requirements for growing the mushrooms as well as losses incurred due to the short shelf life of the harvested mushrooms. This proposal explores deep, transformative science questions with the goal to implement a novel technology to help mushroom growers overcome these challenges. Successful implementation will result in the growers operating more successful businesses, and will facilitate more novice growers to enter the market. The overall outcome will be an increase in supply to meet the unmet demand of the US consumer. Currently there is a great reliance on imported mushrooms to meet some of the demand. This project will enable an increase in domestic production capabilities thus improving national security, and will support the White House’s National Strategy on Food Insecurity and Better Health. The innovative research proposed in this project is to define and implement a plasma treated water sterilization method that will impact multiple stages of mushroom cultivation and has the potential to transform production processes by reducing labor, water, and energy usage while enhancing product quality and extending shelf life. The application of plasma treated water in mushroom growing is relatively unexplored but seems promising as it has known antimicrobial activity due to reactive nitrogen and oxygen species. The reactive oxygen and nitrogen species also are known to boost post-harvest quality in mushrooms. However, there is risk that antimicrobial activity could also harm fungal mycelium and delay, inhibit, or otherwise disrupt growth resulting in yield loss. The project seek to understand the impacts of plasma activated water on mushroom production and seek to minimize the deleterious impact on fungal mycelium and mushrooms while maximizing its benefit. Successful applications of plasma activated water for mushroom production through this Phase I project will bring a significant efficiency gain for mushroom growers and reduced reliance on resources will enable production of mushroom in formerly inaccessible environments (such as in austere and isolated environments), thus opening new markets while providing more sources of nutrition to the local populations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.