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Vitamin D Mushrooms

Luxidum offers fully automated customised Vitamin D-Boosters for the production of Vitamin D Mushrooms – the most innovative step forward in fresh mushroom products.

In 2016 Monaghan Mushrooms was granted the first authorisation for UV-treated Vitamin D button mushrooms as a Novel Food.

Since then, Walsh Mushrooms and Banken Champignons applied for authorisation through a costly and time-consuming application process.

However, the Novel Food regulation amendment (EC) No 2015/2283 became valid on 1.1.2018. All foods mentioned in the Novel Food Union List can now be placed on the EU-market by every company without any further authorisation process!

Vitamin D Deficiency

The Europeans’ average vitamin D intake is far below the recommended daily intake, mainly because there are so few food sources rich in vitamin D.

Vitamin D deficiency is a public health issue prevalent worldwide and is one of the key causes of osteoporosis and muscle weakness.

Furthermore, vitamin D deficiency is associated with:

• cancer
• cognitive impairment
• cardiovascular diseases
• autoimmune diseases
• hypertension
• infections

Vitamin D Sources

Few foods are naturally rich in vitamin D. Good sources include fatty fish such as salmon and tuna.

However, all mushroom species contain ergosterol, and upon exposure to UV light from the sun or artificial light, this provitamin D is converted through a photochemical reaction to vitamin D.

That´s why wild mushrooms can contain high amounts of vitamin D due to sunlight exposure. On the other hand, the vitamin D content of cultivated button mushrooms is minimal (<0.2 μg/100 g), because they are cultivated indoors without the benefit of sunlight.

Vitamin D Top Food Sources

Approved Claims by EFSA

Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 sets the rules on the use of health or nutritional claims on foodstuffs based on scientific evidence. Health claims are any information on labels and advertising stating that health benefits can result from consuming Vitamin D-Mushrooms. The following claims have been approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for Vitamin D-Mushrooms:

Nutrition Claims

• High in vitamin D
• Rich in vitamin D
• Excellent source of vitamin D

Health Claims

• Reinforces the body’s natural defences
• Improves muscle strength
• Important for healthy bones and bone strength
• Enables normal bone formation
• Important for good teeth mineralization
• Essential for the absorption and utilisation of dietary calcium and phosphorus
• Regulates cell division
• Regulates the immune system

Vitamin D synthesis takes place on the surface exposed to UV light only – no impact on any other nutrients than vitamin D!

Technical Details

• Post-harvest UV light treatment
• Machine designs for whole mushrooms, slices and boxes with 4-6 punnets
• Easy to use: switch on, and 5 sec later you can start boosting the value of your mushrooms
• Safe for users: complete shielding from UV light via slalom-tracked punnet guide
• Continuous UV light or pulsed UV light (Xenon, Polytec GmbH)
• Reflector unit equipped with a shutter
• Conveyor belt speed control
• PLC control
• Integral cooling system
• Radiometric control
• Durable construction
• Stand-alone system easy to integrate into your processing line

About Luxidum

Company Facts

• Worldwide the first machine manufacturer and consultant company 100% dedicated to Vitamin D Mushrooms
• Complete customised solutions for fresh mushrooms & mushroom powder from a single supplier

• Your partner for obtaining EFSA approval for this Novel Food and further mushroom species (e.g. oyster mushrooms, shiitake)
• Consulting service on health and nutrition claims

About the Founder

• Dr. Paul Urbain is a pioneer in the field of “Vitamin D Mushrooms” research. As a nutritional scientist, he was in 2011 the first to demonstrate in humans that the bioavailability of vitamin D from UV-treated and vitamin D-rich button mushrooms can effectively cure vitamin D deficiency [1].
• Since 2011 he has held the utility patent for the use of Vitamin D Mushroom Powder in different food products and supplements.
• He recently directed a subproject entitled: “Exploration of novel vitamin D-enriched mushrooms and powdered mushroom-containing food products for prevention of vitamin D deficiency; efficacy and safety” within the EU’s 7th Framework Programme (ODIN) [2-4].

• The project partner Monaghan Mushrooms of Ireland got in 2016 the first authorisation of UV-treated and vitamin D-rich button mushrooms as a Novel Food.
• In 2017, he submitted on behalf of a large producer of button mushrooms in Germany, an application for authorisation to put Vitamin D-Mushrooms on the EU market under the simplified notification procedure.

[1] Urbain et al. (2011). Bioavailability of vitamin D2 from UV-B-irradiated button mushrooms in healthy adults deficient in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D: a randomized controlled trial. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 65, 965–971.

[2] Urbain et al. (2015). Dose–Response Effect of Sunlight on Vitamin D2 Production in Agaricus bisporus Mushrooms. J. Agric. Food Chem. 63, 8156–8161.

[3] Urbain et al. (2016). Impact on Vitamin D2, Vitamin D4 and Agaritine in Agaricus bisporus Mushrooms after Artificial and Natural Solar UV Light Exposure. Plant Foods Hum. Nutr. 71, 314–321.

[4] Cashman, Urbain et al. (2016). Effect of Ultraviolet Light-Exposed Mushrooms on Vitamin D Status: Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry Reanalysis of Biobanked Sera from a Randomized Controlled Trial and a Systematic Review plus Meta-Analysis. J Nutr.146(3), 565-75.