Final report summary: Alternate casing substrate – providing review of research to date and an expert forum for future R&D investment (MU22009)
We've pulled together a concise two-page summary of the Alternative casing substrate - review of research to date and expert forum for future R&D investment project to make key insights from the full Hort Innovation final report easier to access.
The summary highlights the objectives, methodology, key findings, and recommendations to help the Australian mushroom industry respond proactively to a deep dug casing phase-out, giving growers a clear pathway toward sustainable, locally sourced casing alternatives.
This summary also includes a link to the full final report.
MushroomLink Bulletin September 2025
In this edition:
FEATURE: Food Safety FAQs - your questions answered
REGISTER NOW: Managing risk and reputation in a crisis
MARKETING: 5 minutes with marketing – update from the team
SAFE MUSHROOM MONTH: October is Safe Mushroom Month
HORT INNOVATION NEWS: New Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook on its way
Food safety month
Food Safety Month is here!
Over the next four weeks, we’re shining a spotlight on food safety and the vital role it plays in mushroom production. There are plenty of opportunities to connect, engage, and strengthen your food safety practices.
A wide range of resources and support are available to help you and your team, including:
The Safe Mushroom Food Safety Program, with tailored information and guidance for non-certified growers
Verification testing kits for certified and non-certified growers
Videos and free posters to download and display on your farm
Webinar on what to do when it all goes wrong
Food safety is everyone’s responsibility - and with these resources at your fingertips, it’s easier than ever to put best practice into action.
Collaboration with the Fruit nerd - mushroom safety
Fruit nerd educates consumers on the safety of store bought mushrooms
MushroomLink Bulletin August 2025
In this edition:
FEATURE: Ethylene and mushrooms
REGISTER NOW: Managing risk and reputation in a crisis
WEBINAR CATCH UP: The future of mushroom packaging
VIRUS SURVEY: This levy-funded PhD study needs you
MARKETING: 5 minutes with marketing – update from the team
SAVE THE DATE: October is Safe Mushroom Month
HORT INNOVATION AGM: Register now
Help improve the management of viral diseases of mushrooms.
Your input is vital to protecting Australia’s mushroom industry from costly viral diseases. Agriculture Victoria is inviting growers to take part in a national survey that will map the presence of viruses in Australian mushroom crops. By contributing samples, you’ll not only strengthen the industry’s ability to detect and manage diseases like La France and patch/brown cap, but you’ll also receive confidential insights into the health of your own crops - at no cost to you.
La France disease and Mushroom Virus X (MVX) complex are viral diseases that cause significant economic losses overseas, because of poor yields due to pinning disruption and discoloured and deformed mushrooms. La France disease is present in Australia.
MVX has not been reported in Australia, but patch and brown cap symptoms, like those associated with MVX, were recently observed. The virus profile of affected Australian mushrooms differs to that observed for MVX overseas, suggesting a different viral complex might cause the disease.
As a part of a Hort Innovation funded project to understand the viruses associated with in Agaricus mushrooms in Australia, Agriculture Victoria is conducting a survey determine which viruses are present in both healthy and diseased Australian mushrooms. The information will be used to develop surveillance tools that can be used by industry for early detection, accurate diagnosis of disease, and patch and brown cap disease prevention.
The success of this survey depends on your participation:
Participation will help to improve the outcomes of the project for industry.
The participating farms will receive information about the viruses that were detected and risks associated with their detection.
All grower information will remain confidential: only de-identified data will be presented in any communications.
The cost of virus testing is free for participating growers.
Participating in the study is simple:
1. Collect mushroom samples and pack them in paper bags.
a. Each sample should contain a minimum of five mushrooms.
b. If there is disease on farm, please include at least one sample from a healthy crop along with diseased samples.
c. Symptoms of virus infection include – browning, bare patches, distorted mushrooms, premature veil opening, and poor shelf life.
2. Number the samples sequentially.
3. Complete the survey form.
4. Send the samples to:
AgriBio – Crop Health Services, SAMPLE RECEPTION - MAIN LOADING DOCK, 5 Ring Rd, La Trobe University Campus, Bundoora, Victoria, 3083.
Submission of samples for this survey closes on 30 September 2025. For further information or enquires please contact Madhav on madhav.chandarana@agriculture.vic.gov.au
Future of mushroom packaging
Join us for an important update on the future of mushroom packaging.
In this webinar on the 21 August, Roberto Persivale from The Growth Drivers shared insights from a national project investigating alternatives to PVC film, with a strong focus on the shifting regulatory landscape and its implications for stakeholders (including growers). New developments, including the proposed SPSA (Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia) levy and emerging EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) frameworks, signal a fundamental change in how packaging decisions will be made and who bears the cost.
In parallel, the project has scoped potential alternatives and developed a flexible assessment framework that reflects the real-world needs of different producers. The next stage of the project will focus on refining and quantifying this framework—defining baselines for technical, economic, and sustainability criteria that will guide the development of trial roadmaps and support cost-benefit assessments across the industry.
This session is your opportunity to stay ahead of what’s coming and help shape a solution that works for your business and the broader mushroom sector.
MushroomLink Bulletin July 2025
In this edition:
NEW MAGAZINE: Winter issue out now
FEATURE: Microbes 101 – Understanding human pathogens
REGISTER NOW: Future of mushroom packaging, webinar registrations open
WEBINAR CATCH UP: Mushroom schools education program
MLMRU: The Spotlight has arrived!
RESOURCE: Final report summary – Mushroom supply chain best practice management
MARKETING: 5 minutes with marketing – New partnership with the Fruit Nerd
OTHER NEWS: Latest from Hort Innovation
Final report summary: Mushroom supply chain best practice management (MU22011)
We've pulled together a concise two-page summary of the Mushroom supply chain best practice management project to make key insights from the full Hort Innovation final report easier to access. The summary highlights the objectives, methodology, key findings, and recommendations to help improve produce quality, reduce waste, and boost profitability across the supply chain.
This summary also includes links to the full report and outputs from the project.
MushroomLink Magazine Issue 13
We hope you enjoy this issue, with its usual mix of R&D news, the latest in technology from around the world, and pest and disease updates.
You can subscribe to an e-copy of MushroomLink magazine here or view previous issues here
Click here to download the magazine
Articles
Levy funded project updates
Microbes 101: Understanding human pathogens (and how we find them)
The Mushroom Health Science Australia Website: A strong start
Marketing
Growing & Tech
Pest & Diseases
Biological control of pests and diseases - A review of products potentially useful for mushrooms
At some point, every grower will encounter pests and/or diseases, no matter how good their crop hygiene and farm biosecurity. These can potentially wreak havoc across not just a single crop, but the whole farm. With chemical control availability dwindling, Dr Aimee McKinnon (Agriculture Victoria) has been examining more sustainable alternatives through Hort Innovation project MU22000.
Disorder or disease?
When mushroom growers detect an unusual symptom on their crop, their first response is to determine whether the issue is a disorder or a disease — a critical step for effective management and to maintain farm biosecurity.
Ethylene and mushroom quality - MU24002 kicks off!
An eighteen month project is underway at the Queensland Department of Primary Industries’ (QDPI) well-equipped Maroochy Research Facility (MRF) on the Sunshine Coast (Qld), aiming to determine whether ethylene exposure along the supply chain is affecting mushroom quality.
Verification of farm hygiene efficacy by paint roller sampling
Whole-farm hygiene is a critical component in mitigating the costly impact of pests and diseases on mushroom quality and yield. Hygiene forms a critical core pillar of an effective farm Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPDM) program, and enforcing strict preventative hygiene protocols is the most cost-effective disease management strategy available in the mushroom growers’ toolbox.
Using an innovative approach, Warwick and Judy adopted standard paint rollers as sampling tools and verified their applicability by direct plating to ‘up-sized’ culture dishes – replacing standard 9cm-diameter Petri dishes – that could accommodate the length of various paint rollers (Gill & Allan 2016). Paint rollers offer wide and rapid coverage, ease of use, good spore pickup from all surfaces, cost-effectiveness and compatibility with modern diagnostic tools—making them well-suited for mushroom farm pathogen detection.
The Mushroom Health Science Australia Website is live: A strong start to a high impact initiative
The Mushroom Health Science Australia website, which you can find at www.mushroomhealthscienceaustralia.org is now live and making meaningful connections with health professionals across Australia. This levy-funded flagship initiative is designed to showcase the research, resources and recipes linking mushroom consumption with health outcomes.
The website has had a strong and promising start, delivering value to both the healthcare and mushroom industries.
Margin’s Mushrooms - From fizz to fungi, a grower’s journey
In a world increasingly dominated by ‘Big Players’, whether you are running sport, selling chemicals or growing mushrooms, it is refreshing to find a small family business that is not only surviving, but thriving. MushroomLink recently had the pleasure of visiting Margin’s Mushrooms on the beautiful NSW Central Coast, spending time with dynamic owners Kim and Christine Margin.
Marketing update
With an emphasis on taste, versatility, and everyday appeal, the initial campaign results are encouraging across a broad mix of paid, owned and earned media.
The Australian mushroom industry continues to see positive momentum through the national Mmmmushrooms campaign, developed by Hort Innovation and supported by the Mushroom Fund.
As of May 2025, the campaign is tracking well against its performance objectives and laying the groundwork for sustained consumer engagement and behavioural change
Microbes 101
Cast your memory back to March this year, and you may remember some empty shelves in the supermarket fresh produce section, especially if you were in Queensland or northern NSW. This was due to a major recall of products containing baby spinach.
The recall was triggered by two detections of shiga- toxin E. coli (STEC) in ready-to-eat spinach products. No illnesses were linked to the detection, so there was little media interest.
However, those two detections cost the industry dearly, with losses likely to be in the millions of dollars. These losses extended to completely unrelated growers; with supply stopped for two weeks, many crops were simply abandoned.
So, what is STEC? Was such a recall justified? And what is the risk of something similar happening in our industry?
The mushroom RD&E investment cycle
In the final instalment, Mushroom Fund Research, Development and Extension Coordinator (RDEC) Dr Carly Rosewarne explains how projects are managed after contracting.
Transforming ideas into contracted projects takes considerable effort, as outlined in Parts 1 and 2 of this series.
The hard work does not stop there – in fact, it is just getting started! One of the first tasks for Delivery Partners – the teams that have been contracted to achieve the outcomes – is to prepare their project planning paperwork. This includes a risk management plan, stakeholder engagement plan, communications plan, and a monitoring and evaluation plan.
