Environmental impact of Agaricus bisporus mycelium production

•Analysis of the production process of mycelium seeds (Agaricus bisporus variety)•Life cycle assessment (LCA) to understand the environmental impact sources•Cradle-to-gate LCA to tackle the environmental aspects from a life cycle approach•The research is based on data obtained from production plants in a region of Spain.•The total GHG Emission of mycelium production is 3.07E − 01 kg CO2 eq per kg of product.

The present study analyses the environmental impact of the process to produce mycelium seeds of the Agaricus bisporus variety. This study integrates the life cycle assessment (LCA) within models of production systems as a tool for decision making regarding the environmental impact of the process and subprocesses conducted. The present research shows the value of the environmental impacts of the product, according to the standards established in the identification and evaluation of impacts through the LCA. Each subprocess, including the overall process, has been deeply analysed. All entries involved in the process were considered, and all processes were simulated with the software SimaPro® using Leiden 2000 CML as the calculus methodology.The research identifies the subprocesses with a greater impact on the overall process. Thus, it is found that the rye preparation has the largest impact indicators, particularly the cooking and mixing phase due to the high demand of resources and energy sources. CO2 emissions produced in the seed preparation phase are remarkably high, specifically in the stage of germination. The activity with less impact is the creation of a culture medium, because it is a manual process with no machinery and with a low energy demand.