Poisonous mushrooms may have been sold at festival in Tokyo

I know mycologists that can mis-key fungi, so please be careful.

Notice how the news story doesn't mention that the mistake occurred at the Japan-S.Korea festival held on Saturday.

Moderator: That's because it didn't. The mushrooms were sold at the Sumida festival in Sumida Ward, while the Japan-S Korea festival was held at Roppongi Hills. In future, please refrain from making inflammatory remarks like this.

Or maybe people should have more details on the name of the festival in case they bought mushrooms at "a festival" and want to be careful.

majimeaussie.

I don't think there were many festivals this weekend in that area that sold those mushrooms and as the article states 2 out of 4 sold packages been recovered already.

Hope the people that bought them haven't consumed them yet.

Wow, that is scary! People never think about how poisonous mushrooms can be if not careful or wrongly picked or consumed. Hope that the the people that bought them, already got the news.

You would think they would be more careful at such a festival.

Safety Japan gets bitten in the arse again.

Some of the consumers claimed psychedelic effects. Perhaps it was a different type of mushroom they pushed out...

This is a pretty silly mistake. Why didn't the supplier know they were the harmful type? He is supposed to be the pro. Note to self: Don't buy mushrooms at Japanese festivals. Only buy them at certain restaurants in Bali.

People, it was a small local festival in Sumida-ku. What makes you think there would be safety inspectors/inspections? When was the last time you went to a 祭り and saw food label warnings.

For once I wish people would post informed -educated- opinions and not just quickietype an SMS-style comment just to see yourself online.

This is a pretty silly mistake. Why didn't the supplier know they were the harmful type? He is supposed to be the pro.

From the article - it would be very difficult even for a specialist to tell the mushrooms apart.

There are lots of potentially dangerous mushrooms that look very much like edible, delicious mushrooms. I'll stick with the cultivated type. The picture of the sulfur tuft on Wiki looks an awful lot like some of the mushrooms they have in the shops.

Well I really hope the buyers didn't consume them.

Lift import ban on NK Mushrooms and let people pay and enjoy the safe food.

@IdiotKiller: +1

We feel terrible about the mix-up

So does the person who ate them...

cCleo - There are lots of potentially dangerous mushrooms that look very much like edible mushrooms.

Yep, there you go. You said it yourself, "They look very much like", but not identical. If they can't tell the difference they shouldn't be selling them. We used to pick wild mushrooms when we were younger (not the happy type) and there are quite a few easy distinctions between mushrooms that are delicious and ones that will end your life. If you don't know, don't buy them. The people selling them should be sued for damages. Many years ago a judge tell me that, ignorance is not an excuse!

there are quite a few easy distinctions between mushrooms that are delicious and ones that will end your life.

I think it depends on the type of mushroom. Some are easy to distinguish, some are not. it would be very difficult even for a specialist to tell the mushrooms apart.

If you don't know, don't buy them.

For most people (including me) that would mean never ever eating another mushroom. I'll just continue to pass on the wild ones.

@Disillusioned...are you living in Japan? If yes, for how long now? You'll discover that 'ignorance is not only an excuse but a way of life' in Japan if you've lived here long enough.

Then again, why were those poison mushroom mixed with the edible ones. Who grew them? Who picked them? Who brought them to Tokyo? Who sold them? Who bought them? Who were rushed to the hospital for food poisoning after the festival? Who among those rushed to the hospital actually went to the festival and bought poison mushroom? Connect the dots people!

But then again, this could be resolved by just an apology here in Japan...apology for not knowing that the mushrooms are poisonous.

So glad no one made curry with the damned things!

"chestnut mushrooms"

I've never heard of them. Chestnuts, yeah, mushrooms yeah, but not chestnut mushrooms. Are they a cross of chestnuts and mushrooms?

Sarge, 'chestnut mushroom' is probably a literal translation of kuritake, or Hypholoma sublateritium, which Wiki says is called Brick Cap in English. Interestingly, Brick Cap is considered inedible in Europe, but is a delicacy in the US and Japan.

The Sulphur Tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare) is a relative of Hypholoma sublateritium and one Japanese name for it is nigakuritake, or bitter kuritake.

The real Chestnut Mushroom is a variety of the ordinary white button mushroom that is a bit browner. It tastes a bit better than the white mushroom, and if it's allowed to grow big and flat it's called the Portobello mushroom and is absolutely scrumptious. I haven't seen a Portobello in yonks. They're great stuffed with buttered herbed breadcrumbs and baked in the oven.

Just yesterday i saw a mushroom in a departo cost 8000 yen for only 3 pieces, it is similar to button mushroom but big in size. I couldnt figure out the benefit there to buy these costly mushroom.

I like the occasional eringi, maitake or shimeji (shijimi? I always mix these words, but I like both) but not such a big fan. I don't get people who enjoy fungus that much.

they look like alien little life forms, FCS

I like to partake of the "Fruit of the Fungi".

I tend to eat a lot of mushrooms(since a child), back home we alwways collected our own while at one of the week-end homes. And in my home-country mushrooms are often on the table.

We had a good library of books and how to recognise the poisonous varieties, etc. Some can really easily be mistaken, looking the same and the difference can be as small as if the ring on the stem is fixed or not.

Besides some being poisonous some mushrooms can be deadly to people with weak hearts, etc.

Said that some poisonous mushsrooms like Toadstools are edible if prepared right.

Also agree that the prices for some mushrooms like Maitake can be ridiculous.

I don't think that we should never eat another mushroom but shouldn't eat STRANGE mushroom. If they are popular mushrooms and long time used. That's no much problem. I am myself mushroom addictor. I often visit Ashima mushroom hotpot restaurant at 3-4-2 Shibaura Minato-ku Tokyo and there have been no problem for me since I first went there. They have a lot of fresh mushroom and all are carefully examined and they are (if rare mushroom) still clear types as well :)