Sawdust as a Feedstock for Food Production.

Abstract

The current rapid growth of the world population and agro-industrial production cause an increasing need for food and accumulation of lignocellulosic wastes. The most frequent agro-industrial residues are cereal and weed residues as well as sawdusts of various deciduous and coniferous species. Although those lignocellulosic residues are a potential feedstock for a number of valued products, such as food, feed, paper, bioethanol, etc., the majority is either burned or left to degrade, representing slowly-degraded environmental ballast. Sustainable management of the wastes is of particular importance not only from the economic point of view, because of the possibility of using those wastes, but also from ecological aspects regarding environmentally-friendly waste disposal, to avoid disturbing the balance of nature. The consequence of a growing world population, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries, is food insufficiency that leads to rising numbers of malnourished people which in turn is associated with increased rates of infection and disease. Mushrooms are excellent sources of proteins, essential amino acids, dietary fibers, vitamins, and minerals, as well as numerous bioactive compounds and thus could be both highvalued foods as well as being the basis for new paratherapeutical medicines. Likewise, mushrooms can be easily cultivated on various lignocellulosic residues because of their ability to degrade all plant cell wall components owing to well-developed ligninolytic enzyme systems. Because of their appropriate chemical composition, various types of sawdust could be substrates for producing high-value fungal biomass. The optimization of substrate composition and cultivation conditions will enable significant yields of highly-nutritious food and allow new species to be cultivated commercially.