A charity in Australia has repeated a warning against picking and eating wild mushrooms. The Food Safety Information Council’s annual message comes as mushrooms are starting to appear around Australia with it being Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Lydia Buchtmann, Food Safety Information Council CEO, said foraging for food is becoming popular, especially through promotion on social media, but gathering wild mushrooms can be dangerous.
“Last May, a 98-year-old Victorian woman died after eating death cap mushrooms picked from her own garden. Her son also ate the mushrooms but recovered. The poison in one death cap mushroom, if eaten, is enough to kill a healthy adult.
Also, in April 2022 a young child was hospitalized in the Australian Capital Territory after consuming a death cap mushroom,” she said. “Don’t take the risk of foraging for other wild food as mushrooms are not the only risk. Gathering wild food is also a risk for foodborne illness from contamination with animal feces and parasites.
” Coroner on fatal case In May 2024, Loreta Maria Del Rossi died seven days after consuming a meal made with mushrooms foraged from her own garden. Victorian State Coroner, John Cain, found that Del Rossi died from multi-organ failure due to poisoning from amatoxins — the toxin found in death cap mushrooms. Del Rossi, who lived with her son, grew her own vegetables and regularly collected wild edible grasses such as dandelion and milk thistle.
In April, she found wild mus.