Mushrooms: one mistake can be fatal What you need to know before you forage
What it's about:
Poisoning incidents involving self-collected wild mushrooms occur repeatedly. Every year, the poison information centers in Germany’s federal states answer several thousand enquiries about mushrooms. “In Germany, there are highly poisonous mushrooms that look strikingly similar to edible ones. This can be a hazard even for experienced foragers,” says Dr. Yuri Bruinen de Bruin, Head of the National Poisons Register Unit at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment). Popular native edible mushrooms include, for example, the field or meadow mushroom and the charcoal burner. Time and again, foragers mistake these edible mushrooms for the highly poisonous green death cap. The toxins it contains can lead to liver failure, meaning that even consuming small amounts can be fatal. Children and older people are particularly at risk. Even small amounts of poisonous mushrooms can cause serious health problems in these groups. Symptoms of mushroom poisoning are varied: often – though not with all mushrooms – the poisoning begins with a feeling of unease, accompanied by abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.
The health risk associated with consuming self-collected mushrooms is relatively high—time and again, edible species are mistaken for poisonous ones. The green death cap is Germany’s most toxic mushroom: even a fraction of a normal mushroom portion can prove fatal for adults and children alike. Around 10 percent of all mushroom poisonings are attributable to the consumption of death caps, which grow mainly in deciduous forests, but also in parks, from July to October. The BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment estimates that death caps account for at least 80 percent of all fatal mushroom poisonings in Germany.
What to do in the event of mushroom poisoning
If you feel unwell after eating mushrooms, seek medical advice immediately or contact a poison information centre without delay.
List of Poison Centres:
External Link:https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/343/verzeichnis-der-giftinformationszentren.pdf
- Under no circumstances should treatment be attempted without medical advice. Even measures that appear harmless—such as inducing vomiting—can have serious health consequences, for example if vomit enters the lower airways. Milk can promote the absorption of toxins.
- In cases of poisoning, remnants of mushrooms left over from cleaning or the meal—including vomit, where available—provide valuable clues for identification (including spore analysis) and should therefore be retained.
- Anyone else who ate the mushrooms should be notified and should also seek medical evaluation, even if no symptoms have appeared so far.
Important information on preventing mushroom poisoning:
- To protect yourself from mushroom poisoning, you should, as a general rule, collect and prepare only mushrooms that you can reliably identify with absolute certainty as edible. While mushroom apps can serve as a useful general guide, they often do not allow for unambiguous identification. Reliable identification via apps is therefore by no means guaranteed, so such tools should be used only with great caution.
- Mushrooms should always be prepared fresh.
- Wild mushrooms may carry fox tapeworm eggs. These are reliably killed by cooking at temperatures of 60 to 80 degrees Celsius for at least five minutes.
- Raw edible mushrooms served in salads often cause adverse reactions. All mushroom dishes should therefore be cooked for at least 15 minutes.
- Mushroom dishes may be reheated once after being stored briefly in the refrigerator.
- In many towns and regions, mushroom advisory centres or individuals with extensive and proven expertise in mushroom identification are available. If you are unsure whether mushrooms are poisonous or edible, always consult a mushroom expert. Information on qualified experts can be found on the website of the German Society for Mycology (see below). The poison centres in Germany’s federal states can also provide relevant contacts for identification assistance in cases of poisoning or suspected poisoning.
- Valuable information on mushrooms and the risks of poisoning can be found on the website of the German Society for Mycology:
Further information on the BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment website on the subject of poisoning
Questions and answers on poisonous plants
https://www.bfr.bund.de/en/service/frequently-asked-questions/topic/poisonous-plants-how-to-protect-yourself-and-what-to-do-in-case-of-poisoning/
Directory of Poison Centres
https://www.bfr.bund.de/en/chemical-safety/product-notifications-and-poisonings/posion-control-centres/
About the BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment
The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) is a scientifically independent institution within the portfolio of the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH). It protects people's health preventively in the fields of public health and veterinary public health. The BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment provides advice to the Federal Government as well as the Federal States (‘Laender’) on questions related to food, feed, chemical and product safety. The BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment conducts its own research on topics closely related to its assessment tasks.