The Mushroom Council hosted a tasting event and met with officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Aug. 21 to showcase a new concept of adding mushrooms to meat entrees.

The concept will expand the market for mushrooms with new uses in school meal programs, an untapped area for mushrooms, according to the council. Rather than replacing students' favorite foods, this "swapability" concept would develop meal options using mushrooms for a portion of the traditional protein component.  

In addition to providingThe Mushroom Council hosted a tasting event to showcased its new concept of adding mushrooms to meat entrees. taste and nutrients, mushrooms also add an extra serving of vegetables to the plate. Sample dishes were recently showcased at the School Nutrition Association convention and at the Produce Marketing Association Foodservice conference, where they received an overwhelmingly positive response.

"Adding mushrooms to meat entrees creates a healthy and nutritious meal for children while encouraging increased vegetable consumption without sacrificing the food they love to eat," Bart Minor, president of the Mushroom Council, said in a press release. "Chopped mushrooms look similar and blend seamlessly with meat, so students' favorite meals can be made healthier without losing taste, volume or satisfying texture."

Mushroom Council Chairman Joe Caldwell, Treasurer Tony D'Amico and Mr. Minor showcased the concept in a variety of USDA school lunch program recipes. Members from USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service and Food Nutrition Service sampled the dishes, including mushroom meatballs, turkey mushroom burgers, turkey mushroom spaghetti, mushroom meat tacos and mushroom meatloaf.

Example menu trays also illustrated how the mushroom meat entrée complements current school lunch meal plans in a healthy and nutritious way, meeting new USDA meal pattern requirements.

In addition to meeting with AMS and FNS staff, Mushroom Council members discussed with Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Deputy Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition & Consumer Services Janey Thornton the concept of adding mushrooms to meat entrees as an innovative solution to providing children with a healthy, nutritious meal in an accessible, convenient product.

The council plans an aggressive campaign, working with meat processors to develop a ready-to-eat meat-mushroom blend product that is easily implemented into school lunch programs and educating school foodservice directors about the recipes. The recipes can be found at the Mushroom Council's website, mushroominfo.com/schoolrecipes.