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You'll be amazed at the variety. It holds bread, coffee, tea, beer, cheese, corn and salami.

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Whether fungus is used to pre-ferment malt for the manufacture of beer or for preparing coffee beans before roasting,

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it's used in their production process.

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Many other products, for example coffee beans, are also used in their production process.

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Many other products, for example coffee beans, are also used in their production process.

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Many other products, for example coffee beans, are also used in their production process.

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Many other products, for example coffee beans, are also used in their production process.

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And then of course there are fresh mushrooms themselves.

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One might even wonder what's not made using fungus.

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But there's no need to go running to the woods for mushrooms today,

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because they can be grown in all seasons to supply industrial applications.

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Here we're in our cold room.

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Here the final products are stored and cooled completely for one or two days before packaging,

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because this product is alive and it must not warm up during transport.

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This living product, substrate, is simply sown with the right strain of fungus and then you just wait.

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Growing mushrooms and fungus is very easy.

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All you need is the right substrate.

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Then you pierce holes in the sacks and the mushrooms grow.

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After that you simply harvest them and put them in a basket and you can sell lovely mushrooms.

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But it's a risky business because it requires a substrate with absolutely no contamination.

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Otherwise you can simply discard the entire harvest and it takes 20 weeks to grow shiitake mushrooms, for example.

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So you only realize that they've been contaminated 20 weeks later and your losses are enormous.

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Many farmers underestimate the difficulty of producing substrates for different kinds of mushroom.

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If they're exposed to contamination for several months,

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there's no way to recover and the company goes bankrupt.

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In addition, the traditional manufacture of the product is something like an enormous kitchen recipe.

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This is particularly difficult for small business because it requires a huge amount of handling time and energy.

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Throughout the entire process, a means must be found to ensure better sterility of the product and to save time and energy.

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Ours is a very small company.

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So we don't have a large research budget.

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For some time now, we've been thinking about working with European partners.

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In fact, we have already done joint projects with the EU in the past

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and the results of the previous research were completely satisfying.

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So we thought we could try again for this bulk substrate manufacturing project.

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The bulk substrate project groups small businesses from Belgium, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Italy and Israel.

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The research that began in January 2004 also included two research centers,

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the Catholic Higher Educational Institute in Ghent, Belgium, and the WAM Institute in Rome, Italy.

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One of the objectives targeted by the partners was to replace this crucial stage of production.

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The European Union has already started the process of manufacturing the bulk substrate.

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The bulk substrate is a cooperative research project that costs 1,945,000 euro

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and the European Union contributed 1,008,000 euro.

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One of the objectives targeted by the partners was to replace this crucial stage of production.

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As you can see, the people here wear sterile clothing to avoid contaminating the product.

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Let's go and see the place where we open the sacks.

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This is where we inoculate the substrate with the right strain of fungus.

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The few seconds during which the sack is open are enough to produce contamination unless we're extremely careful.

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This is why we've tried to eliminate the stage in the new process.

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In addition, as you can see, the traditional process takes a lot of time.

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This is the result of the collaboration between eight SMEs and two research centers.

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In principle, this is a combination of existing machines and new technologies.

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The raw material is injected into a dust-free tank.

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In a mixer, steam is injected into the mixture.

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After sterilization, we cool the product.

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Then we inoculate it, and the material is transported under aseptic conditions to the filling station,

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where it's put in plastic bags.

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There's only one thing in common between the old method and the new, supplying the machine.

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Everything else is done automatically.

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But above all, in a closed, aseptic environment.

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The operation takes less time and, moreover, consumes much less energy.

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What's changed?

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On the outside, nothing, because the final product is similar to what it's always been.

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However, our objective is to limit energy and labor costs, thanks to the new system.

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Traditionally, we needed 36 hours for production.

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And with the new system, we think we can cut it down to only five hours.

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The Norwegian company, Mio, grows mushrooms, amongst other things,

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and is particularly pleased with the performance of the prototype.

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The project has enabled us to save energy,

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but what really interests us is the sterilization provided by the machine.

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Our company also makes cheese,

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and soon we want to come out with a new range of products, cheese with mushrooms.

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After all, certain mushrooms have the property of reducing the quantity of fat absorbed by the organism

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when they're mixed with certain naturally fatty foods, like cheese.

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There's no doubt mushrooms can have a variety of uses.

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Fungus and plant extracts can play an important role in animal feed,

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because they can be used as alternatives for antibiotics.

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And as you know, antibiotics in animal feed will be prohibited on the 1st of January 2006.

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The advantage for the producer is that you can reliably invest in a food additive

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that does not fall under the future prohibition of antibiotics.

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The market is huge.

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Europe, with 25 member states, spends at least 600 million euros a year on antibiotics for animal feed.

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Each partner had its own requirements,

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but we have a single prototype.

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This is why we've developed a very elaborate machine,

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and that's the real advantage of this type of project.

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I believe I can speak for all partners

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when I say that we've come to the end of a very enriching collaboration

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that's been a dream come true for us all.