Six Key Technologies for Pollution-Free Production of Edible Fungi

I. Improve the Ecological Environment

The cultivation site should be chosen close to a water source, with good air flow, open space on all sides, and at least 1500 m away from livestock and poultry farms, breweries, residential areas and hospitals. Measures such as turning the soil, sun-bleaching and flooding should be adopted instead of chemical pesticides for disinfection. The water source and water quality must be clean and free of pollution. It is strictly forbidden to spray or soak mushrooms with sewage. Mushroom roots, dead mushrooms, insect-damaged mushrooms and discarded culture medium must not be stored inside or outside cultivation and processing facilities.

II. Reasonably Select Raw Materials

In strict accordance with the new requirements of WTO/SPS plant quarantine, cultivation materials such as cottonseed hulls, wheat straw, corn cobs and soybean cakes must be free of mold and pesticide residues. No chemical fertilizers, pesticides or growth hormones may be added when preparing the culture medium. The water used for mixing, cultivation and management must be clean and free of any pollution. For casing soil material, use subsoil from barren slopes free of pesticide and fertilizer pollution, and use it after sun exposure. For livestock and poultry manure in the cultivation formula for manure-and-straw fungi, the livestock and poultry must be raised free-range and free of hormones, antibiotics and chemical products.

III. Advocate Biological Control

Plant anti-mold agents and botanical pesticides may be used in preparing the culture medium, such as the Chinese medicinal herb perilla, the aster family plant pyrethrum, ester pesticides, and the woody oil plant rapeseed cake, all of which can be made into botanical pesticides to kill insects and control mites. Vigorous mushrooms can also be used to suppress insects: strict control must be exercised at every stage, including strain selection, culture medium formulation, pile fermentation, inoculation and spawn running, and fruiting management, to grow vigorous mycelia and fruiting bodies and enhance their own disease and pest resistance. Rotation and intercropping with specific mushroom types can also be adopted; for example, Dictyophora indusiata (bamboo fungus) has a strong fragrance that mosquitoes and insects fear, so mushroom-Dictyophora rotation also helps prevent insects.

IV. Implement Physical Sterilization and Insect Prevention

Inoculation rooms, spawn-running rooms and ultra-clean workbenches should be disinfected and sterilized with 30-watt ultraviolet lamps or electronic ozone generators. Cultivation rooms should use black-light lamps or sticky insect boards to trap and kill mushroom gnats, flies, leafhoppers and other insects. Insect screens and window screens should be installed on the doors and windows of mushroom houses (sheds). For the disinfection of cultivation and processing materials, tools and facilities, the pasteurization method should be used, passing steam to reach a temperature of 60°C and maintaining it for 10 hours; chemical agents such as formaldehyde, lysol and sulfur must not be used.

V. Strictly Use Chemicals Scientifically

Adhere to prevention first. When chemical pesticides must be used, choose agents with high efficiency, low toxicity and low residues, such as trichlorfon, phoxim, propargite, fipronil, thiophanate-methyl and metalaxyl. Apply them before fruiting or after each harvest, and pay attention to using small amounts and localized application to prevent spreading contamination. It is strictly forbidden to spray pesticides during the fruiting period, and it is forbidden to use methamidophos, methyl parathion 1605, 1059, monocrotophos, isocarbophos, chlordimeform, omethoate, dinoseb and all mercury-based pesticides and other highly toxic, high-residue pesticides in the mushroom production process.

VI. Product Processing Meets Standards

Edible fungus products often fail to meet relevant standards, such as excessive sulfur content, due to improper processing procedures. For this reason, a scientific and correct processing flow and operating system must be established, and precision, advanced mechanical equipment must be used for processing. Mushroom product packaging must comply with national hygiene standards, namely the hygiene standard for dried edible fungi, the hygiene standard for fresh edible fungi and the food packaging hygiene standard.