From Waste to Wealth: Valorizing Date Fruit Pomace for Enhanced Fungal Biomass and Mycoprotein from the Edible Fungus, Neurospora intermedia

Abstract

Waste valorization via edible fungus represents a novel transformative approach for single-cell protein production. The present study focused on the utilization of date fruit pomace for the cultivation of edible fungus Neurospora intermedia. A total of six date fruit varieties were used for this study: shalabi, barhi, khudri, sukkari, mabroom, and khalas. Chemical analysis revealed that date fruit pomace contained 1.6 ± 0.3 to 3.1 ± 0.3% ash, 6.4 ± 1.1 to 9.1 ± 1.2% moisture, 71.2 ± 1.1 to 91.2 ± 0.9% total solid content, a maximum of 27.3 ± 0.2% volatile matter, and 45.3 ± 1.1% total dietary fiber. The nutrient-rich barhi date variety was used as the substrate without any pretreatment for the bioconversion of protein-rich N. intermedia biomass. The optimum pH, temperature, and incubation time improved fungal biomass production (p<0.05). The culture medium was statistically optimized via a central composite design. The optimized culture conditions improved the mycelial biomass 2-fold, and all the selected factors (pH, temperature, and incubation time) were significantly different (p<0.01). The culture was filtered, and the fungal biomass was dried. The dried fungal biomass contained 17 ± 2.1% protein, 3.6 ± 0.1% carbohydrate, and 0.91 ± 0.02% fat.