Mushrooms: mistakes can be fatal

Poisoning due to the consumption of self-picked mushrooms occurs again and again. The federal states` poison information centres answer several thousand enquiries about mushrooms every year. "In Germany, there are very poisonous mushrooms that look confusingly similar to edible mushrooms. This can be hazardous even for experienced pickers," says Dr Yuri Bruinen de Bruin, head of the National Poisoning Register unit at the BfR. Popular local edible mushrooms include the meadow mushroom and the russula. Time and again, collectors confuse these edible mushrooms with the highly poisonous green button mushroom. The toxins it contains can lead to liver failure, so that even eating small amounts can be fatal. Children and the elderly are particularly at risk. Even small amounts of poisonous mushrooms can cause serious damage to their health. The symptoms of mushroom poisoning are varied: often - but not with all mushrooms - the poisoning begins with malaise, accompanied by abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.

The health risk of eating mushrooms you have picked yourself is relatively high - time and again, well-tolerated species are mistaken for poisonous ones. The green button mushroom is the most poisonous mushroom in Germany: even a fraction of a normal mushroom meal can lead to death in adults and children. Around 10 per cent of all mushroom poisonings are caused by the consumption of button mushrooms, which grow from July to October, mainly in deciduous forests, but also in parks. The BfR estimates that button mushrooms are responsible for at least 80 per cent of all fatal mushroom poisonings in Germany.

 Measures in case of mushroom poisoning

• If you feel unwell after eating mushrooms, you should always consult a doctor or a poison information centre immediately.

Directory of poison information centres:

• https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/343/verzeichnis-der-giftinformationszentren.pdf
• Under no circumstances should therapy be administered without a doctor's order: Even supposedly harmless measures such as inducing vomiting can have serious health consequences, e.g. if vomit enters the deep respiratory tract. Milk can promote the absorption of toxins.
• In the case of poisoning, leftover mushrooms from cleaning or from the meal - possibly also vomit - provide valuable information for mushroom identification (including spore analysis) and should therefore be kept.
• Other people who have also eaten the mushroom meal should be informed and should also be examined by a doctor, even if no symptoms have occurred so far.

Important information on the prevention of mushroom poisoning:

• To protect yourself from mushroom poisoning, you should only collect and prepare mushrooms that you can safely recognise as edible mushrooms. Although mushroom apps are suitable for general orientation about a mushroom species, they often do not allow mushrooms to be clearly identified. Reliable identification of mushrooms by apps is therefore by no means guaranteed, which is why such apps should only be used with great caution.
• Mushrooms must be freshly prepared.
• Fox tapeworm eggs can adhere to wild mushrooms. These are reliably killed by boiling at temperatures of 60 to 80 degrees Celsius for at least five minutes.
• Raw edible mushrooms in salads often lead to intolerance reactions. Therefore, every mushroom meal should be cooked for at least 15 minutes.
• Mushroom dishes can be reheated a second time after being stored briefly in the refrigerator.
• In many cities and regions there are mushroom advice centres or people who have extensive and proven knowledge of mushroom identification. Always ask a mushroom counsellor if you are not sure whether the mushrooms are poisonous or edible. Information on mushroom experts can be found on the website of the German Mycological Society (see below). The poison information centres of the federal states also provide appropriate contacts for identification of mushrooms in cases of poisoning or suspected poisoning.
• Valuable information about fungi and the risks of poisoning can be found in an article in the German Medical Journal and on the website of the German Society for Mycology:

        https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/216184/Vergiftungen-durch-Pilze

        https://www.dgfm-ev.de

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