Abstract:
Food safety related disease outbreaks and challenges could cause serious crop and market related losses in any industry. This is also true for the commercial mushroom sector in South Africa. Disease outbreaks adversely affect economic viability of the industry, on both the production and consumer margins. In order to secure the economic feasibility of the industry this study focussed on production practices and diseases that contribute towards losses. Included in this research are investigations into method development for foodborne and mushroom antagonistic organisms in production systems. An important research objective was to understand the dynamics of the microbiological significance in each major aspect of the mushroom production chain to determine the viability of early detection systems and ultimately prevention of disease outbreaks. Different molecular techniques were optimized and employed to confirm prevalence and persistence of the various microorganisms identified to be of importance. Successfully developed and implemented aspects of the work performed in this study will be directed to the South African mushroom industry for further development of a holistic mushroom quality and safety management programme. Not only will it provide a better understanding of the mushroom microbial ecology, prevalence of foodborne pathogens and accurate identification of mushroom pathogens, but also contribute to improved product quality and safety for consumers. These aspects have a level of novelty that has the potential to offer the South African industry with solutions to improve disease management and overall safety standards.
