[Green] Transforming into leather and packaging indefinitely... Rediscovering the 'Eating Fungi' Mushroom

The part of mushrooms that you can't eat 'mycelium', eco-friendly material 'new use'
Developed with mushrooms, packaging materials, etc.Research in Korea is also in full swingRural Development Administration Secures 7 Related Patents...Consumer 'attention'
Mushroom Farmhouse's New Source of Income...the expectation of an increase in income

[Anchor]
Mushrooms are all-round ingredients that cross the main and supporting roles of cooking.

Technology to make eco-friendly alternative materials with mushrooms has been developed, and its application is drawing attention.

I'm reporter Kim Min-sung.

[Reporter]
Mushrooms are divided into fruiting bodies, the parts that people eat, and mycelium, which absorb nutrients like the roots of plants.

While consumers were interested in fruiting bodies, some researchers focused on mycelium that could not eat.

Now, mushrooms are not only used in stir-fry, soup, or soup, but are also used as packaging materials to protect my items in the delivery box, and as vegan leather to replace animals, so to speak, mushroom leather.

Overseas, we have already developed eco-friendly industrial materials with mycelium since the early 21st century.

Domestic technology remained in its early stages, but the Rural Development Administration began researching three years ago and secured seven patents, and consumers are gradually showing interest.

[Jung Sung Il / Mushroom packaging manufacturer: It's a completely new material, a completely new material, a completely marketless material, so you feel a lot of newness in that area and feel that new experience is very valuable.]

This rediscovery is also good news for mushroom farmers.

Mushrooms are produced throughout the year due to stable facility cultivation, and the crop is constant, but it is not easy to earn income because they are labor-intensive.

However, if we turn our eyes to material development, small-scale production tailored to demand is possible, so if the market is secured, it will be established as a new food for farmers.

[Kang Hee-joo / Mushroom Farmhouse: The general mushroom farmhouse also has facilities that produce mushrooms.... If only the details are shared, it can be seen as a material that anyone with these facilities can produce.]

They don't use a lot of water or use chemicals that are harmful to the human body because they're made of other materials.

It is also free from the problem of 'animal ethics', which means eco-friendly and moral access to animals due to its short decomposition time.

However, the disadvantage is that the price is still high as the research is late.

[Ahn Ki-hong / Agricultural Research Institute of Rural Development Administration: We believe that we will be able to reduce the price of the final product, starting with cost reduction by recycling the media after harvest and the discarded media]

Fungi and mushrooms, not plants or animals, are coming off the table and permeating everywhere in our lives.

I'm Kim Minsung of YTN.