Mushroom first spawned from an apple closer to mass production

An unusual mushroom first found growing on an apple is moving closer to mass production, as Chinese researchers seek to turn the chance discovery into a new food product for supermarket shelves.

"We are still at the laboratory stage, producing only about 50 to 100 kilograms a day," said Zhao Qi, a researcher at the Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences who leads the team behind the project. Small-scale online sales have already seen repurchase rates of 50 to 60 percent, he added.