Pleurotus eryngii has recently become the most commonly cultivated
mushroom in Korea, China, and Japan (Im et al., 2013) owing
to its thick and meaty white stem, good taste, flavor, and nutritional
factors. A total of 3858 M/T were exported from Korea to
North America and Europe (KATI, 2013). Although P. eryngii has
more trade-friendly traits than other mushroom species, including
a long shelf life, possibly because of the low water content and firm
flesh of the fruiting body (Manzi et al., 2004), however, export to
distant areas (for instance, from Asia to North America) takes more
than 30 days for shipping. This long shipping time lowers the quality
of mushrooms, especially during the summer season. The shelf
life of fresh mushrooms may be limited due to bacterial spoilage
(Doores et al., 1987) or enzymatic browning (Sapers et al., 1994),
depending on the conditions during harvest time, handling, and
storage. Browning and microbial contamination could be prevented
by a washing process using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and brown-