Agri-food industry generally produces huge volumes of wastes all over the world, and their disposal is a threat to the environment and public health. The chemical composition of most of these wastes make them be defined as lignocellulosic materials, so they could be a suitable substrate for solid-state fermentation process operated by mushrooms. White-rot fungi are well known for their degradation ability of lignocellulosic material, and many scientific works reported the use of different substrates for their production. Biotechnological treatments of agri-food wastes by mushrooms could be considered an eco-friendly solution to reuse and valorize them, besides to reduce their environmental impact. In this way, wastes would be transformed into new resources to produce added-value food products, besides representing an economic return for the same industries. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the recent literature concerning the use of different agri-food residues as growth substrates for Pleurotus spp. cultivation, with attention to their effects on the growth and chemical composition of the cultivated mushrooms.

Today, consumers are increasingly demanding safety alternatives concerning the use of synthetic additives in the food industry, as well as healthy food. As a result, a major number of plant-derived preservatives have been tested in the food industry. These natural ingredients have antioxidant properties and have shown to increase the bioactive molecules levels and the microbiological stability of the food items. The effect of the plant-based preservatives on the sensorial properties of the new products has also to be considered, because natural preservatives could result in sensorial characteristics that may not be accepted by the consumers. Cheese is a dairy product widely appreciated all over the world, but it is also susceptible to contamination by pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms; therefore, the use of preservatives in cheese making represents an important step. This review deals with one of the innovation in the cheese sector, which is the addition of natural preservatives. Several aspects are discussed, such as the effect of natural ingredients on the microbial stability of cheese, and their influence on the chemical, nutritional and sensorial characteristics of the cheeses. Although the promising results, further studies are needed to confirm the use of natural preservatives from plants in cheese making.