NL: Novel mushroom product reduces antibiotic use

Scelta Ceuticals, a sister company of Scelta Mushrooms, introduced their first innovation on the food ingredients exhibition in Paris last year. Branded as Murill the Dutch company introduced a mushroom derived product that enhances the health of humans and animals. The product, in essence the mycelium of almond mushrooms (Agaricus blazei murill) is not an extract and is allowed to be marketed with the European Feed Safety Authority 13.1-claim “supports and modulates the immune system”.

“We tested the product with broilers and layers and mortality and the level of bad micro-organisms decreased,” says Scelta Ceuticals managing director Wim van den Elshout. “The advantage of Murill is that it can reduce the use of antibiotics in the primary sector. Next to that feed conversion improves. Also in human food it has positive effects.” Two products are developed together with SylvanBio Europe with whom Scelta intend to start a 50/50 joint venture under the name Sylvan Scelta BV.

Solid state fermentation

Scelta uses solid state fermentation to grow the mycelium of Agaricus on a rye medium. After approx. 25% bioconversion, the product is dried and ground, ready to use. In one product Scelta markets it as a feed material for animals on a 3kg/ton feed dosage. In the other application the product is converted to flour and can be used as a food ingredient to make for example bread, pasta or soups. Each of the products is allowed to be accompanied with the generic claim that it supports the immune system actively as a proven concept based on dozens of scientific papers which were generated over the past 50 years around the world. The use of the product in animal feed will help to reduce the use of preventive antibiotics in animal feed.

More to come

“In the near future we will introduce also other mushrooms like Cordyceps, Ganoderma and Maitake, grown on oats, barley and spelt,” Van den Elshout says. However for these products the company needs to build extensive dossiers for EFSA as these products are not yet in their files and will be considered most likely as novel food. Our products qualify for the generic EFSA claim 13.1 i.e. supports and modulates the immune system. The scientific papers and claims substantiation for this statement are filed under this regime.

Source: allaboutfeed.net