Fungi in Food: More Than Just Mushrooms!

I have taught the lab portion of a university course on mycology (the study of fungi) twice, and both times, the most entertaining lab to teach was the "food lab." Students' jaws dropped when they learned how many of their favorite foods contained fungi or required fungi for manufacture. Fungi are an incredibly diverse group of organisms with a wide array of metabolisms and biochemistries, and humans have cultivated many of them as foods, or in order to process foods. Most of these fungi do not produce mushrooms, and in fact very few of them are closely related those that do. Were I to ask you to list off the foods in your kitchen that could not be made without fungi, would you think to include your bottle of Sprite, blue cheese, or-dare I say it-chocolate?

Fungi are useful for processing foods because they are heterotrophs (organisms that get their nutrition from other organisms) that feed by absorption-that is, they secrete powerful enzymes into their environment that break down complex organic molecules into smaller molecules, which they then absorb. Thusly, we can alter the chemical makeup (and therefore the nutrition, taste, and texture) of foods by allowing fungi to grow into them. Fungi also produce chemicals-which are waste products as far as the fungi are concerned-that can impart desirable flavors and aromas to foods.