Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME
Motivation and Problem
Legumes such as peas are an important part of the human diet worldwide. They provide high-quality plant protein and valuable fibre. In Europe, however, they have so far been used primarily as animal feed, even though they offer great health benefits for humans.
One reason for their limited consumption to date is technological hurdles: peas require long cooking times and contain oligosaccharides (such as raffinose), which can cause flatulence in many people. At the same time, there is growing interest in plant-based alternatives to meat and sausage products, as well as in readily available, healthy convenience products.
Edible mushrooms show great potential in research for utilising complex plant structures such as lignin and cellulose. In practice, however, this potential has hardly been exploited for food production to date – apart from classic mushroom cultivation, where mushrooms usually grow on straw- or wood-based substrates, which also consist of lignin and cellulose.
The aim of the research project is to close this gap and translate scientific findings into an economically viable process. The focus is on the fermentation of peas (Pisum sativum) with edible mushrooms. The aim is to convert both the peas themselves and by-products such as pea husks and pea flour into higher-quality food ingredients.
In initial trials, two promising fermentation processes have already been successfully tested: solid-state fermentation and liquid fermentation.
