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Abstract: Numerous studies have been conducted relating to the shrinkage that occurs during commercial mushroom canning operations. Shrinkage (or loss of canned product yield) generally runs between 35 to 40% in commercial processing plants. Losses of this magnitude represent considerable loss of potential revenue to processors. COALE and BUTZ (1972) determined that a 5% reduction in shrinkage would result in a 20% increase in revenue to processors packing a complete product line. Thus, methods of reducing shrinkage are constantly being sought. Nearly all previous studies relating to mushroom shrinkage during processing have been concerned with evaluation of growing practices (DOMMEL, 1964), post-harvest storage (BEELMAN et al, 1973; MCARDLE and CURWEN, 1962; MCARDLE et al, 1974; PARRISH et al, 1974) and processing operations (BRADLEY, 1970) for their influence on shrinkage. Few attempts have been made to determine the influence of the chemical composition of mushrooms on yields during processing (LEE, 1969; PARRISH, 1973). DOMMEL (1964), in a study comparing 8 different mushroom strains, observed the general trend that strains with greater solids content also had lower shrinkage (greater yields) during canning. He also observed the same trend for protein content determined from proximate analysis of the fresh mushrooms. The data collected by DOMMEL (1964) have been adapted and presented in Table 1 to illustrate this trend. Recent studies in our laboratory relating to shrinkage of mushrooms during canning (BEELMAN et al, 1973; MCARDLE and CURWEN, 1962; MCARDLE et al, 1974) have emphasized the importance of the relationship between water-retention properties (water-binding and water-holding capacities) of mushroom tissues and mushroom shrinkage during canning. HAMM (1960) reported that a high correlation existed between the water-binding and water-holding capacity of meat tissues under stress such as cooking. He speculated the cause of both effects was due to the interaction between meat proteins and water. This led us to the speculation that variations in mushroom shrinkage among different strains or within the mushrooms from different flushes of a crop cycle might be explained by differences in protein content. This study was initiated to investigate this possibility.
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