San Jose, Calif. – The Mushroom Council hosted a tasting event and met with officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) August 21, 2012 to showcase a new concept of adding mushrooms to meat entrees. The concept will expand the market for mushrooms with new uses in school meal programs, an untapped area for mushrooms. Rather than replacing students’ favorite foods, this “swapability” concept would develop meal options using mushrooms for a portion of the traditional protein component.
In addition to providing taste and nutrients, mushrooms also add an extra serving of vegetables to the plate. Sample dishes were recently showcased at the School Nutrition Association convention and at the Produce Marketing Association Foodservice Conference where they received an overwhelmingly positive response.
“Adding mushrooms to meat entrees creates a healthy and nutritious meal for children while encouraging increased vegetable consumption without sacrificing the food they love to eat” says Council President Bart Minor. “Chopped mushrooms look similar and blend seamlessly with meat, so students’ favorite meals can be made healthier without losing taste, volume or satisfying texture.”
Mushroom Council Chairman Joe Caldwell, Treasurer Tony D’Amico and President Bart Minor showcased the concept in a variety of USDA school lunch program recipes. Members from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and Food Nutrition Service (FNS) sampled the dishes including mushroom meatballs, turkey mushroom burgers, turkey mushroom spaghetti, mushroom meat tacos and mushroom meatloaf. In addition, example menu trays displayed how the mushroom meat entrée compliments current school lunch meal plans in a healthy and nutritious way, meeting new USDA meal pattern requirements.
In addition to meeting with AMS and FNS staff, Council members discussed the concept of adding mushrooms to meat entrees as an innovative solution to providing children with a healthy, nutritious meal in an accessible, convenient product with Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Deputy Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Janey Thornton.
The Council plans an aggressive campaign, working with meat processors to develop a ready to eat, meat mushroom blend product that is easily implemented into school lunch programs and educating school food service directors about the recipes.
The recipes can be found at the Mushroom Council’s website http://mushroominfo.com/schoolrecipes
About The Mushroom Council:
The Mushroom Council is composed of fresh market producers or importers who average more than 500,000 pounds of mushrooms produced or imported annually. The mushroom program is authorized by the Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act of 1990 and is administered by the Mushroom Council under the supervision of the Agricultural Marketing Service. Research and promotion programs help to expand, maintain and develop markets for individual agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad. These industry self-help programs are requested and funded by the industry groups that they serve. For more information on the Mushroom Council, visit mushroomcouncil.org.
Source: The Mushroom Council
