Culinary-medicinal mushrooms: must action be taken?

In the Western world, the mushroom industry suffers from overproduction. Expectations are stronger than reality, and as a result, production is too high and prices are too low. Because bulk production has taken the lead, which not only happens in the West, overproduction occurs regularly. Low pricing influences the quality concept of consumers and hence their appreciation of mushrooms. This cannot continue without doing great harm to the socioeconomic structure of the industry. Therefore, measures have to be taken to introduce mushrooms as a true health food in the Western world. This may form a first step in the acceptance of mushroom extracts and mushroom-derived compounds as medicine in the prevention and cure of disease. The present review discusses the acceptance of mushrooms as health food and medicine and suggests pathways for necessary action