ABSTRACT
Mushrooms are consumed as foods, including nutraceuticals, functional foods or food-flavouring agents with a characteristic mushroom and umami taste shared among all cousins across the world. Many fungi are broadly used biotechnologically as sources of various substances considered as dietary and nutritional, being good sources of proteins and carbohydrates with low energy. This chapter discusses the importance of mushrooms as flavours and scents in functional foods and medicinal products with their chemical composition. Some mushroom odours can be pleasant and are considered atypical for fungi. Mushrooms produce a broad array of aromas which vary depending on the specific species. They have characteristic odours and unique smells that are recognisable by mycologists and used to distinguish and identify different species.
