Mushrooming guidelines Our guide to picking & eating mushrooms.
Here are a few golden rules to help you limit the risk of picking and eating a toxic mushroom species.
- Unfamiliar mushroom species
- Don’t mix mushroom species
- Examine each mushroom specimen
- Don’t eat raw wild mushrooms
- Always keep back an uncooked mushroom specimen
- Only eat good fresh mushrooms
- Keep your mushroom collections in the fridge
- Reactions to a mushroom species
- Alcohol & mushrooms
- Fear of mushrooms
- Mushroom susceptibility
- Eating large quantities of mushrooms
Unfamiliar mushroom species
Check and recheck your identification, in particular looking out for similar poisonous mushroom species. If in doubt, DON’T RISK IT, ask an expert or throw it away.
Don’t mix mushroom species
Do not mix different mushroom species in your collecting basket or bag. Use a separate bag for each species. It is a good idea if collecting for the pot to only collect edible species so as not to risk mixing them with other species you may have wanted for identification purposes.
Examine each mushroom specimen
Always check each mushroom in case a different species has got in amongst your collection of edible ones.
Don’t eat raw wild mushrooms
Some mushrooms such as the Wood blewit Lepista nuda, the Blusher mushroom Amanita rubescens, and species of Helvella mushroom are poisonous if eaten raw. Always cook your mushrooms before you eat them.
Always keep back an uncooked mushroom specimen
Unless you are eating commercially sold edible mushrooms, always keep back one uncooked example of what you have eaten in the fridge, this will help others identify what you have eaten and make it easier to treat you if the mushroom makes you ill.
Only eat good fresh mushrooms
Many poisoning cases occur when poor quality edible species are eaten. Only eat good fresh mushrooms and check for maggot holes in case there are any inside!
Keep your mushroom collections in the fridge
This helps preserve your mushrooms before you cook them – don’t keep them more than 3 days before cooking.
Reactions to a mushroom species
When eating a species for the first time, only eat a small amount. Different people react to mushrooms in different ways and it is safer to test your body’s reaction cautiously!
Alcohol & mushrooms
Avoid drinking alcohol with all species you haven’t eaten before. Some mushrooms such as the Common inkcap Coprinus atramentarius can be poisonous when you eat them if you drink alcohol at the same time.
Fear of mushrooms
Do not feed wild mushrooms to people who don’t want to eat them. Fear itself can make people sick!
Mushroom susceptibility
Do not serve wild mushrooms to young children or old or sick people, their resistance to a mushroom’s toxicity may be low.
Eating large quantities of mushrooms
Don’t eat large quantities of wild mushrooms in one sitting. This can lead to a build-up of toxicity in your body that may be more than you can cope with and could make you sick.
References: The British Mycological Society; Guides for the Amateur Mycologist – No.4, Guide for the Kitchen Collector: Preservation and Cooking of Fungi, Shelley Evans, BMS, 1994; Identifying Mushrooms, Peninsula Mycological Circle; wildfoodUK.com.