Factors affecting sensory attributes of oyster mushrooms

Oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus sajor-caju, were grown on chopped corn stover substrate with increasing amounts of cracked corn supplementation and were harvested at immature and mature stages of growth. Descriptive terms for mushroom color, texture, and flavor were generated and used to determine the impact of cracked corn supplementation on the sensory attributes of fresh and stored (5C for 48h) immature mushrooms and of fresh mature oyster mushrooms. Results indicated that supplementation with cracked corn significantly (P<0.05) affected the texture attributes, i.e., tough, rubbery, and fibrous of the oyster mushroom. When factor analysis (FA) was applied to the descriptor data, three factors were identified in the immature fresh and immature stored oyster mushrooms data which explained 86 and 82%, respectively, of the variation. FA of data from the mature oyster mushrooms identified 3 factors which explained 89% of the data variation.