A rural activity but not without risks. This year the mushroom picking started early due to the weather, but be careful at the beginning of September, which is the ideal season for picking. Since August 1, more than 250 cases of poisoning have already been registered, twice as many as in 2022 in the same period.
For the national secretary of the French mycological society, Patrice Lainé, this increase is simply explained by the weather. “In August it rained; it hadn’t happened for several years,” he explains to BFMTV.
The contaminations, instead of taking place in September, occur mainly in August of this year. “If we wait until the end of the year, I guess there will be the same number of poisonings,” he said.
Always cook a wild mushroom.
While harvesting in the national forest of Roumare, in Haute-Normandie, Philippe Vérité, professor of analytical chemistry at the Rouen health UFR, sees a blushing amanita.
“It’s an extremely common fungus in our forests,” he tells BFMTV. “It’s a good edible, but you have to cook it well,” he warns.
In fact, cases of poisoning after eating mushrooms are usually related to insufficient cooking.
On its website, the National Agency for Food Safety (Anses) recommends “never” consuming raw wild mushrooms. “Cook them for 20 to 30 minutes in a skillet or 15 minutes in boiling water,” he advises.
Have the mushrooms checked by a pharmacist.
Other walkers can sometimes mistake several species of mushrooms, similar in appearance to the untrained eye.
“We have the yellow citrine amanita, a mushroom that must be rejected” because it can be “confused” with “the white forms of the phalloid amanita”, a “deadly mushroom”, warns Professor Philippe Vérité.
“Collect only the mushrooms that you know: at the slightest doubt, do not consume the harvest before it is reviewed by a pharmacist,” says ANSES.
Some pharmacists have training in mycology and can identify potentially dangerous fungi.
Be careful with smartphone apps
If in recent years there have been applications for smartphones that claim to help walkers in their choice, experts call for not blindly trusting them.
“Unfortunately, there is currently no mobile application that allows you to eat mushrooms with peace of mind. They should not be used for consumption,” Professor Alexis d’Escatha, director of the Grand Ouest poisoning and toxicovigilance center in Angers, told BFMTV.
As a precaution, it is better not to feed wild mushrooms to young children, whose bodies are more fragile.
Source: BFM TV
