Health alert: do not pick or eat these poisonous mushrooms
Poisonous mushrooms, including Death Cap mushrooms and Yellow-staining mushrooms, are currently growing around Victoria – and they’re more prevalent than usual following a wet summer.
Please avoid picking and eating any wild mushrooms as they can cause serious illness and even death. The poison in one Death Cap mushroom, if eaten, is enough to kill a healthy adult.
Pictures on the Health.Vic website can help you identify these poisonous mushrooms.
Cooking, peeling or drying these mushrooms doesn’t remove or inactivate the poison, and there is also no test you can do at home to distinguish safe and edible mushrooms from poisonous mushrooms.
Make sure you only buy mushrooms from a supermarket, greengrocer or other reputable source, so you know they’re safe to eat.
Worried you’ve eaten a poisonous mushroom? Here’s what to do
If you’re concerned that you or someone else has eaten a poisonous mushroom, seek medical help immediately – don’t wait for symptoms to occur.
Contact the Victorian Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Australia-wide) or call Emergency services on Triple Zero (000).
If you can, take a photo of the mushroom that was consumed, as the Victorian Poisons Information Centre may be able to identify it.
Subscribe to other health alerts from the Victorian Government.