Scientists say mass production of truffles is a reality

It is possible that in the future another potential exporter of truffles will emerge in the world, which will positively affect the prices of imported mushrooms in some countries.

TSUKUBA, Ibaraki Prefecture. It would seem, why start a news article with this sentence, but for mushroom lovers this is not unimportant, as the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute announced the successful cultivation of artificial truffles there for the first time in the country. . But, according to the experts of the institute, it will take some time to bring the artificially grown truffles to the mass consumer. But they also say the February 9 raid gives hope that the Japanese will one day be able to enjoy homemade truffles as a familiar food, writes Asahi.

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“We will now examine under what conditions we can grow truffles to get a stable harvest,” said Takashi Yamanaka, Director of the Tohoku Research Center at the institute that led the research. .

Truffle is a type of fungus that grows in clusters in the soil. It is known as a premium product used in western cuisine. Like matsutake mushrooms, the mushroom is highly prized for its fragrance. According to the institute, about 200 species of truffles are known in the world. In European countries they are already grown artificially.

Japan imports truffles from foreign countries, but they’re expensive – those in Europe cost around 80,000 yen ($604) a kilo. More than 20 species of wild truffles have been found in Japan, but they are rare. So far, artificial truffles have not been successfully grown in Japan.

In 2015, the institute began research on the artificial cultivation of tuber japonicum, a type of white truffle native to Japan. The institute chose tuber japonicum because of its odor similar to white truffles grown in the USA and Europe; It is grown in large areas of Japan from Iwate Prefecture to Okayama Prefecture; and can grow to a size exceeding 10 centimeters.

Institute experts applied the spores of tuber japonicum to the roots of jolcham oak, allowing them to coexist. They then planted oak trees at test sites in four regions of Japan. In November, a few years after the trees were planted, experts found a total of 22 truffles were growing in test areas in Ibaraki and Kyoto prefectures.

They were nine centimeters in diameter and weighed no more than 60 grams each, large enough to be used as foodstuffs.

When experts ate them, they discovered that they had a garlic-like odor similar to Western white truffles and tasted just as good.

Artificially growing truffles is difficult because, unlike shiitake or enoki mushrooms, they grow between the roots of trees. Artificial cultivation of matsutake mushrooms has not been successful for the same reason.

The institute’s specialists suffered many failures until their efforts were finally crowned with success.

By overcoming all these trials and learning from mistakes, the scientists were able to achieve their goals, enabling the citizens of Japan to settle for locally grown truffles and potentially expect better prices for premium mushrooms from other countries of the world.

Previously Focus He wrote about mushrooms “out of this world”. These “eccentrics” previously did not fit into the picture of our world, and now scientists know why.

Source: Focus

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