How to test mushrooms for toxicity: useful tips. How to check whether a mushroom is poisonous or not at home

Few people know how to identify poisonous mushrooms when cooking.

In addition, few people know that they cannot be 100% classified as plants, since they contain signs of the animal world too. There are about 1.5 million species, subspecies and varieties of mushrooms in nature. This figure is a bit approximate, since scientists and avid mushroom pickers are discovering more and more new specimens. Science does not have an exact number of edible and poisonous mushrooms. It is believed that their percentage is 50/50, that is, they are equally divided.

Poisonous mushrooms can also be identified at the cooking stage.

This product is a common and favorite dish many. In some national cuisines this product occupies a special, privileged place. Mushrooms can be pickled, salted, dried, served fried or boiled. There are a lot of recipes with this delicacy. Food with them acquires an extraordinary, unforgettable taste, and dishes decorated with this dish are a delight to the eye on any holiday table.

How to avoid poisoning from mushrooms and recognize the poisonous ones among all?

This question is asked not only by amateurs and beginners, but also by avid mushroom pickers.

Of course, mushrooms purchased in a supermarket in raw or canned form are 99% free of toxic substances. The only nonsense is improper storage. Such a dish can cause frustration or slight malaise. But what about products that are collected with your own hands? How to recognize poisonous ones among them? After all, poisoning from poisonous mushrooms is equivalent to poisoning from snake venom. The consequences can have a detrimental effect on human health, and sometimes cause death.

There are a lot of misconceptions about recognizing or identifying edible mushrooms.

There is no need to neglect any of these points, and then you will be more likely to enjoy delicious dish from edible products without harming your health.

Types of poisonous mushrooms.

1. Firstly, a big and common misconception among many novice mushroom pickers is that young mushrooms, despite the variety and variety, are always edible. For example, the pale grebe, even in its most early age already contains a sufficient amount of phalloidin poison. With a single dose of 20 mg you can die. There have even been cases where a very small dose of this substance entering the human body led to serious complications associated with gastrointestinal tract, and to problems with the body as a whole. Of course, when picking mushrooms it is better to avoid old and loose ones, but this does not mean that all young ones should end up in the basket. Best Method- study the type and characteristics of edible mushrooms and collect only those that are probably familiar.
2. Secondly, there is a misconception about the bad and pungent smell of poisonous mushrooms. A mushroom with poison does not necessarily have to smell bad; its smell may be no different from champignons that are grown artificially. Don’t forget that everyone’s sense of smell is different, so you shouldn’t rely on mushroom smells when determining edibility.
3. Thirdly, there is another common belief that poisonous mushrooms are not eaten by insects. Mushroom pickers take mushrooms slightly spoiled by worms or snails into a basket, concluding that they do not contain poison. This is a wrong opinion. Dangerous poisonous mushrooms can be spoiled by insects, while edible ones, on the contrary, can remain completely intact. Mushroom pickers do not take wormy specimens only because they are difficult to process for cooking and most often there is little left of the trimmed part.
4. Fourthly, another misconception is that spoiled or poisonous mushrooms cause milk to sour. Pepsin, the enzyme that sours milk, can be found in both edible and poisonous mushrooms. All of them contain a lot of organic acids, which also affect the oxidation of the dairy product.
5. Fifthly, it is widely believed that drinking mushrooms with alcohol will neutralize the poison if it gets in. This is the most false and especially dangerous misconception, because alcohol, on the contrary, enhances and aggravates the effect of poison on the human body. According to statistics, people who drink poisoned food with alcohol are more likely to die.
6. Sixthly, there is a common misconception that any mushroom, if thoroughly boiled, will become non-toxic and all poisons will be removed from it. This works for some, but there are also poisons that are resistant to even the highest temperatures. Therefore, even one mushroom can cause severe poisoning.

How then can you determine whether mushrooms are poisonous or edible? For beginners, it’s better to get a textbook and, when collecting, be sure to look and compare the picture with the type of mushroom that you found. Do not take fish that are suspicious or similar to edible based on only a few characteristics. Do not collect dried out or old mushrooms. If doubts creep in about the correctness of choosing a particular mushroom, then it is better not to put it in the basket. The harvested crop should be processed and sorted as quickly as possible. At home, in good lighting, you need to re-examine the collected mushrooms. All suspicious specimens should be thrown into the trash without hesitation.

To identify poisonous mushrooms, you need to add onions and garlic during cooking.

Exists step-by-step instruction, how to identify poisonous mushrooms when cooking. It is worth noting that this folk recipes, which do not provide a 100% guarantee of identifying poisonous mushrooms.

1. Well sorted and familiar products should be rinsed in a running cold water. Water will not wash away the poison, but if any of the mushrooms are in doubt or its appearance is unfamiliar, then it is better to get rid of it immediately.
2. If the mushrooms were collected near megacities, highways, roadsides, then it is better to soak them for a while, let the water settle and drain it. And when cooking such specimens, the broth must be drained, changing the water several times to new one. This method will not help detect poisonous mushroom, it will only clean the collection from dust and dirt.
3. Exists interesting fact: When cooking mushrooms, you need to add a couple of heads of white onion and garlic. If the onion or garlic has changed its color to blue, brown or darkened, then most likely the collected mushrooms contain poisonous ones. The enzyme tyrosinase, which colors garlic and onions, is often found in poisonous mushrooms. But there are exceptions when edible mushrooms can contain this same enzyme, and some poisonous specimens, on the contrary, do not contain it. Vinegar can act as an indicator of this enzyme. When cooking, it is added to the water, and if it darkens, then it contains tyrosinase.
4. Silver can be an indicator of poisonous mushrooms. It oxidizes and darkens due to amino acids that contain sulfur. That is, if you put a coin or a silver spoon into a decoction of poisonous mushrooms, it will darken. But scientists have proven that there is edible species, which contain sulfur-containing amino acids, and, on the contrary, there are poisonous specimens that do not contain these acids at all. Therefore, this recipe for identifying toadstools is not 100% effective.

It turns out that there is no universal way to test poisonous mushrooms during cooking. Therefore, if you have the slightest doubt about the correct choice, it is better to throw away such a mushroom or not cut it at all.

If poisoning occurs, you need to consult a doctor as soon as possible. Before the ambulance arrives, it is recommended to drink more fluids; milk, water with a small amount of potassium permanganate or salted water will do. You can rinse the stomach and artificially induce vomiting several times. It is better to take a horizontal position. You can put a bandage soaked in cold water on your forehead, but you can warm your legs and stomach with a heating pad or blanket. There must be someone near the victim who has not eaten mushrooms, so that if the patient loses consciousness, they can give him a sniff of ammonia. In a state of poisoning, the victim should not remain unconscious for a long time, otherwise he may fall into a coma.

You should not go into the forest to pick mushrooms without knowing their classification and what edible and poisonous specimens look like. Under no circumstances should you take children with you on a quiet hunt, because they may not only pick up a poisonous mushroom, but also manage to lick it or bite off a little. Edible mushrooms have twins, toadstools, which have slight differences, without knowing which you can easily make a mistake in your choice.

“Silent hunting” - like any hunting - is a dangerous activity if its laws are violated. Therefore, many mushroom pickers are concerned with the question: how to test mushrooms for toxicity and minimize the risks of poisoning?

5 commandments of a mushroom picker

Galerina fringed - a deadly poisonous mushroom

1. Lethally poisonous mushrooms need to be known by sight

It is not difficult to remember the main signs of deadly mushrooms.

• All of them are lamellar.

There are inedible representatives of tubulars, but none of them are deadly poisonous. So, with lamellar specimens, be especially careful.

• The most poisonous of them belong to the fly agaric family: panther fly agaric, pale toadstool, stinking fly agaric (white toadstool), spring fly agaric.

They are united by two characteristics: a thickening-volva at the root of the stalk; collar ring under the hat. Just two signs - and a silent killer will not go into your cart!

• Galerina fringed is a very poisonous specimen, similar to the summer honey fungus,

but grows in coniferous forests where this species does not occur. Her business card- thin fringe along the inner edge of the cap and a ring inside it. In order not to be poisoned by the fringed galerina, you do not need to look for honey mushrooms under coniferous trees in the summer.

• Patouillard fiber is 20 times more poisonous than the red fly agaric.

A warning signal to a cautious mushroom picker will be a sharp, unpleasant odor, similar to industrial alcohol, and the rapid reddening of the flesh, which is full of poison. It is necessary to break the first copy of the find before putting it in the trash.

There are many other mushrooms in the forest that are potential poisoners, but they usually do not lead to death.

2. Distinguish between twin mushrooms

Often inedible species disguised as valuable ones in such a way that even an experienced person finds it difficult to distinguish them. The following table will help you check mushrooms for toxicity.

If the find raises doubts about its edibility, there is no need to take it; as a last resort, place it separately from the other trophies, so that it does not come into contact with them.

3. Refuse to collect popular but actually dangerous forest products earlier

These include: thin pig, greenfinch, stitch.

• - time bomb. It contains an antigen protein that can accumulate for years and then trigger an autoimmune blood clotting reaction. Sudden death from a heart attack, stroke or thrombosis - and few would guess that the cause of this was long-term mushroom intoxication.
• Greenfinch - contains substances that are not excreted from the body. As they accumulate, they impair the functioning of the kidneys, muscle fibers, and thicken the blood.
• Stitches contain hydromyrin. Its concentration in a specific batch of mushrooms in our ecological environment unpredictable. And even if you cook them according to all the rules and use them several times in a row, you can get a severe “blow” to the kidneys and liver.

4. Do not collect mushrooms in industrial areas and in dry weather

From the highway - no less than 200-300 meters, otherwise the lead of the exhaust gases will get stuck in the kidneys and bones and lead to disability. And overgrown and worm-eaten specimens are already full of rotting products and waste products of larvae - a more visible poison is difficult to find.

Pale toadstools are deadly poisonous mushrooms

5. Don't believe myths

You shouldn't trust some common signs.

• If the mushroom is eaten by insect larvae, then it is edible. This is not true: substances that are harmless to insects can be fatal to humans.
• If the find tastes good, then it is edible. - But all fly agaric mushrooms are tasty and poisonous at the same time.
• All young specimens can be eaten without danger. Yes, in most cases, poison accumulates with age, but toadstool, for example, is fatal from childhood.

Thus, the main work on checking trophies is carried out in the forest: there should be no poisonous or poisoned ones in the basket.

Patouillard fiber - a deadly poisonous mushroom

Is it possible to test mushrooms for edibility using folk remedies?

Determining "mushroom poison" using homemade products is dangerous myth. How to test mushrooms without knowing either the composition of the poisons or the substances that react to them? “Tested products” detect completely different substances.

• Testing with onions, vinegar, and milk, which they try to use as indicators of toxins, actually shows the presence of enzymes such as tyrosinase (it turns onions dark), pepsin (milk curdles). These enzymes are found in many foods, which does not mean they are unsuitable for food.
• Silver items immersed in water with mushrooms darken from amino acids containing sulfur - this is also not poison. There are many of them in meat, fish, seeds - protein-rich foods.
• But substances that cause poisoning, using improvised means clean water cannot be withdrawn. Currently, an “indicator ticket” has been patented that identifies the toxin of the toadstool and the entire deadly Amish genus, but its mass use has not yet been heard.

So that the delicacy does not become poison

Even good mushrooms can cause health problems for various reasons.

1. Mushroom dishes are heavy food for the body. People with liver disease, kidney disease, gastrointestinal diseases, hypertension and metabolic disorders should be prepared for health problems when consuming them. They are safe for those who are healthy.
2. The shelf life of collected mushrooms is one day, after which their edibility quickly decreases.
3. You cannot seal mushrooms hermetically. Botulism spores cannot be destroyed at home. The rod from them develops without oxygen; eating mushrooms from such a jar in 60 cases out of 100 ends in death. You can insure yourself by boiling the contents for 15 minutes. But who would want to eat such a dish?

Do not cook in containers made of aluminum, zinc or ceramic dishes, covered with glaze. They will lose their edibility

Mushroom picking - “silent hunting” - is not a safe activity at all: you need to be careful and know your enemy well so as not to suffer from your own trophies.

Today, many ways have been invented to test for the toxicity of a mushroom. But in the mushroom world, the poisons are different. There is no single test that would react to all toxic substances at once. In order for the poison hidden in the body of the mushroom to manifest itself, you need to try several tests - for different toxins. The following are the most popular methods for recognizing poisonous mushrooms.

How to identify poisonous mushrooms - the most reliable method

People have many ways to test mushrooms for toxicity, but all of them are unreliable and are designed to detect a single poison. Accurate identification is only possible based on characteristic features, by which you can accurately identify deadly types of mushrooms. If you come across a dubious specimen whose identification you doubt, proceed as follows:

• Look at inner side caps, to determine whether an unidentified specimen belongs to lamellar or tubular mushrooms. All the most poisonous mushrooms are lamellar. For example, fly agarics and toadstools. Therefore, be especially wary of such mushrooms.
• Look carefully at the bottom of the mushroom. Fly agarics and toadstools of all varieties have an ovoid thickening in the lower part of the leg.
• Look to see if there is a collar ring on the leg. It is located approximately in the middle - a little closer to the cap. If the mushroom has a “skirt,” throw it away as soon as possible.

The video introduces viewers to the most dangerous mushrooms for humans. Find out how to identify them and how they affect the body:

How to distinguish doubles?

Edible mushrooms, which are hunted by mushroom pickers, have counterparts - inedible, conditionally edible or poisonous. Here are the most famous pretenders:

1. Gall and satanic mushroom. These are twins of boletus - the very valuable representative mushroom kingdom. But distinguishing doubles is easy. The first one has a dark network of veins on the leg, the second one has a reddish one. You can also cut off a piece of the leg to see if its color changes. If after a minute the color of the cut does not change, the boletus can be placed in the basket. In twins, the color will change from white to pink - for the gall mushroom, and purple - for the satanic mushroom.
2. False boletus. His hat is darker than the real one. The color of the cut leg does not change, but in a real redhead, on the contrary, it darkens.
3. False boletus. It can be distinguished from an edible mushroom by its darker cap and bluish cut. Another sure sign is the place of growth. False boletus does not grow under birch trees.
4. False chanterelles. To distinguish them from edible ones, you need to be careful. Look at the color of the hats. In real chanterelles they are light orange, almost yellow color. False specimens have bright Orange color, and when broken, drops of white juice appear.
5. False honey mushrooms. There are many poisonous and inedible mushrooms, externally similar to honey mushrooms. Real mushrooms can be distinguished from false ones by their brownish or brownish-yellow scaly cap. Moreover, the caps are pale, while the false caps are bright, for example, red-brown or rusty-red. Edible honey fungus can also be identified by its smell - it has a pleasant and rich mushroom spirit. False mushrooms emit the smell of mold and damp earth.

Gall mushroom

Satanic mushroom

False boletus

False boletus

False chanterelles

False honey mushrooms

Misconceptions about recognizing edible and poisonous mushrooms

The people have several signs for identifying poisonous individuals, and many of them are erroneous. For example:

1. It is believed that edible specimens are pleasant to the taste. Not true - fly agaric mushrooms are also tasty.
2. Young fungi are safe; toxicity comes with age. This is not true, especially regarding the toadstool - it is deadly at any age.
3. Poisonous mushrooms smell unpleasant. Nothing like this. Many poisonous and conditionally edible specimens have a pleasant aroma, while many have no odor at all. Representatives of the inedible category usually have an unpleasant odor.
4. There is a widespread belief that poisonous mushrooms are not wormy - they are supposedly not to the taste of insects. Taking mushrooms that have been eaten away by worms and nibbled by snails into a basket, mushroom pickers think that these mushrooms are definitely edible. In fact, insects can live in any mushroom.
5. Many are sure that alcohol neutralizes poison. Not true again. This misconception is especially dangerous - alcohol, on the contrary, contributes to the intoxication of the body with mushroom poison. If you drink poisonous mushrooms with alcohol, the likelihood of death increases.
6. The opinion about the benefits of boiling mushrooms is also erroneous - boiling does not get rid of all poisons. There are toxins that are neutralized after boiling, and there are others that are resistant to high temperatures.

You cannot taste the mushrooms. Experiments can lead to severe poisoning. Fly agaric and toadstool taste good. Mushrooms need to be identified only by appearance.

When going on a “silent hunt”, it is important to know the exact description of edible mushrooms. If the specimen does not correspond to the description in any way, it is better to refuse it.

Control check

They don’t store mushroom trophies - as soon as they come from the forest, they immediately get to work - clean, wash and cook. A few hours will pass and all the loot will be spoiled. During cleaning, the mushrooms are carefully inspected so that not a single poisonous one slips through. Put old specimens aside - after cooking they will soften and be tasteless, they can even cause poisoning.

People's "testing"

People have come up with a lot of methods to identify poisonous representatives of the mushroom world. Unfortunately, many of them are not effective, since they are designed for the reaction of a specific poison or group of poisons. Moreover, many methods are erroneous, and the cost of error is human lives. Let's figure out what methods there are, what exactly they define, and why they cannot be trusted.

Silver check

There is a popular belief that toxicity can be detected using silver objects. This is a flawed method that should not be relied upon. Silver darkens not from poisons, but from certain amino acids, which can be contained in any mushrooms, regardless of their edibility.

Checking with garlic and onions

Mushroom pickers have another way to check for quality - already during cooking. Throw an onion or garlic into the pan. If there is a poisonous specimen there, they turn blue. I have to throw away undercooked soup. But onions or garlic turn brown not at all from poison, but because of tyrosinase - this is a special enzyme that has no connection with edibility - it can be contained in both toxic and edible specimens.

What will the insects tell you?

Among some mushroom pickers there is a belief that poisonous mushrooms are not eaten by insects. In fact, the presence of insects does not mean anything - among them there are species resistant to poisons.

Milk test

It is believed that milk that gets on the body of a poisonous mushroom will curdle. In fact, folding is caused by the enzyme pepsin, which can be found in any form - edible and toxic.

Vinegar test

It is believed that boiling in a solution of vinegar and salt helps neutralize toxins. Indeed, this is how you can protect slightly toxic species, for example, stitches. But such manipulations are not scary for the pale grebe; its poison remains strong no matter how it is processed.

Recognition by plate color

Color of subcap plates. The pinkish plates are said to indicate harmlessness. Not certainly in that way. It’s true that the champignon has pink plates, but the yellowing champignon and entoloma, both poisonous species, also have a pinkish tint.

Recognition by fault

Fault color. It is believed that if the color of the flesh at the break suddenly turns red or purple, there is poison in the mushroom body. But, for example, edible hornbeams turn purple on the fault, and hornbeams turn blue.

Can you get poisoned by edible mushrooms?

Even edible mushrooms can easily lead to poisoning. The reasons for the transformation of such mushrooms into a poisonous product:

1. Bacteria. Once in the nutrient medium - the mushroom body, the bacteria multiply intensively. Sources of infection are soil, transportation containers, dirty hands. If mushrooms are not processed properly, you can develop bacterial poisoning. If mushrooms are fried or boiled, the bacteria are almost 100% killed. But salted mushrooms can fail if they were not prepared correctly - they lay in the same water for a long time, the ambient temperature was high, or they did not add enough salt to the marinade.
2. Botulism. This scourge affects canned foods. The culprits of infection are clostridia spores. Pickled mushrooms stored without access to air can cause botulism.
3. Toxins. Mushrooms, like sponges, absorb everything chemical substances that surround them. Along with mushrooms grown somewhere in an industrial area or near farmland, heavy metals, herbicides, etc. can enter the body, causing severe intoxication.
4. Binge eating. Mushrooms are considered heavy food. Their consumption should be moderate. And for people with gastrointestinal problems, kidney and liver diseases, they are generally contraindicated.

First aid for mushroom poisoning

If, after eating mushrooms, you feel unwell - dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, shortness of breath and other suspicious symptoms, immediately:

1. Call ambulance.
2. Rinse your stomach. To remove the poison from the body, you need to induce vomiting. Drink 1-2 liters of dissolved potassium permanganate or sorbents - white/activated carbon (1 g per 1 kg of body weight).
3. If there is no coal and potassium permanganate, take table salt. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt in a glass of water and drink - the saline solution has a laxative effect.
4. After removing toxins, you need to replenish fluid loss - drink mineral water or sweetened tea.

When collecting and consuming mushrooms, using “folk methods” is not only ineffective, but also dangerous. Only studying the appearance and special signs of mushrooms - edible and deadly poisonous - will help you avoid a fatal mistake.

There are many misconceptions among people regarding the definition of toxicity of mushrooms. However, contrary to the claims of some “experts” simple ways There is no definition of poisonous mushrooms. To avoid poisoning, you should be critical of a number of false, but very common principles for determining the edibility of mushrooms.

1. All young mushrooms are edible

The opinion that all mushrooms at a young age are suitable for consumption is erroneous. The pallid grebe is deadly poisonous both when young and when mature age. A reliable way to identify poisonous mushrooms is to know them by sight. If there is the slightest doubt, the mushrooms should be thrown away.

One of the most dangerous mushroom poisons is phalloidin, which is especially abundant (almost 10 mg) in toadstool. In terms of the strength of its effect on the body, experts equate phalloidin to snake venom. If about 20 mg of this substance enters the human body, death is possible.

2. A silver spoon (coin) dipped into a decoction of mushrooms turns black if there are poisonous ones among them

In fact, silver darkens under the influence of amino acids containing sulfur. Such amino acids are found in both poisonous and edible mushrooms. There are a number of poisonous mushrooms that do not contain sulfur-containing amino acids, so the silver used for the sample will not turn black.

3. Onion or garlic heads turn brown when cooked in combination with mushrooms, some of which are poisonous.

Many housewives, when boiling, specifically conduct a preliminary test for the toxicity of mushrooms: add an onion or a few cloves of garlic to the water. Such attempts to determine the presence of poisonous mushrooms in the collection are useless. The fact is that the browning of garlic or onions is caused by an enzyme called tyrosinase. However, this enzyme is found in both edible and poisonous mushrooms. At the same time, some poisonous mushrooms do not contain tyrosinase.

4. Poisonous mushrooms and pre-boiling

Some mushroom pickers claim that pre-boiling for several hours removes poison from mushrooms. However, it will not help: most dangerous poisons heat-resistant and even when boiling they remain in the mushrooms. Therefore, even a single mushroom that gets into a dish can cause serious poisoning.

5. Poisonous mushrooms turn milk sour

The statement is not true. Milk sours under the influence of enzymes such as pepsin and organic acids. These substances may or may not be found in edible, inedible, or poisonous mushrooms.

6. The smell of poisonous mushrooms is unpleasant

Smell is one of the properties of mushrooms. Among mushroom pickers (especially beginners), there is often a misconception that poisonous mushrooms have an unpleasant specific odor, while edible ones necessarily have a pleasant mushroom aroma. It's not obligatory. Thus, the smell of edible champignon is almost no different from the smell of the deadly poisonous toadstool. Besides, different people They perceive aromas differently, so you can’t focus only on them.

7. Snails and worms do not eat poisonous mushrooms

Another tale that circulates among mushroom pickers says that insect larvae (fungus gnats, flies, etc.), as well as snails, do not eat poisonous mushrooms. This is not true, they can spoil poisonous mushrooms, although they do not touch them edible chanterelles And Polish mushroom.

8. Alcohol helps with mushroom poisoning

The most dangerous misconception. Alcohol does not help, but aggravates poisoning, since alcohol-containing drinks contribute to the rapid spread of toxins throughout the body.

Mushrooms are delicious and useful product. It contains proteins, vitamins and some fat. Unfortunately, every year mushroom season overshadowed by sad events - poisoning. To avoid tragic troubles associated with silent hunting, you need to clearly know how to distinguish poisonous mushrooms from edible ones.

Where you shouldn't pick mushrooms

It is known that edible species are found almost everywhere: in any copse, in the middle of a field, near houses, on city lawns, in parks and even in landfills. It is worth remembering that mushrooms have the ability to accumulate harmful and toxic substances from the environment.

It is not recommended to collect them in city squares and parks, near roads and railways, or near landfills. An edible specimen grown in an ecologically polluted area can become dangerous to human life and health due to the accumulated toxic products. You cannot take spoiled and worm-eaten ones, as they can form deadly cadaveric poison. Silent hunt It is better to spend it away from the city, in unpolluted areas.

Edible, inedible and poisonous

In addition to their excellent taste and benefits, some mushrooms can cause irreparable damage to human health and even lead to death. Anyone who collects them in nature or buys them in dubious places should understand how to distinguish poisonous species from edible.

• Edible, grown in clean environment, are completely safe, they can be safely eaten, subjected to only a short heat treatment (boletus, champignon, boletus, oyster mushrooms, boletus, boletus, chanterelles).
• Conditionally edible ones can be eaten after certain processing, for example, prolonged boiling and changing the water (milk mushrooms, winter honey mushrooms, pepper mushroom, raincoat, wolf's boletus, black chanterelle).
• Inedible are not suitable for food because they have an unpleasant taste or are too hard. fruiting body(red trellis, thick pigwort, rooting boletus, false puffball, woody moss).
• Poisonous contain substances hazardous to human health and life toxic substances, their consumption even in small quantities can lead to death (pale toadstool, fly agarics, false honey mushrooms, yellow-skinned champignon, whitish talker).

How to differentiate

For those who are still poorly versed and cannot yet distinguish good example for bad things, you should go into the forest with an experienced friend. Mushroom identification is a science, and mistakes can be costly!

Many people rely on “true” signs that make it easy and simple to identify bad specimens. The poison is said to curdle milk and cause silver to darken. There are many folk methods for testing mushrooms for toxicity during cooking, for example: changing the color of onion and garlic heads. These are all myths, and there are practically no universal ways to check! Only one is truly famous reliable way, how to test mushrooms for toxicity or edibility: you need to know them!

Common Misconceptions

It is almost impossible for an inexperienced mushroom picker to test collected mushrooms for toxicity at home. Various signs and traditional methods, which are on everyone's lips.

• Dangerous varieties have an unpleasant odor and a frightening appearance.No, they can smell nice and look beautiful (fly agaric).

Insects and worms do not live on poisonous specimens, because they will be poisoned. No, any experienced assembler knows that this is not true. Some poisonous species are eaten even by large animals.

Young poisonous specimens can be eaten. In no case! The same pale grebe is deadly at any age.

Onions and garlic cooked together with bad mushrooms will turn blue. No, these vegetables do not react at all to mushroom poison.

silver spoon, dipped in the broth, darkens. No, silver darkens not at all from toxicity, but due to contact with sulfur contained in the decoction.

​If there are even minimal doubts, consult with an experienced person to identify dangerous mushroom is possible only if you know well the features of its structure.

Poisonous and inedible varieties, which are very similar in appearance to their edible counterparts, are the so-called doubles.

• Champignon can be confused with toadstool(a type of fly agaric), and this is a poisonous mushroom, the mortality rate from accidental consumption of toadstool is about 90%. Unlike champignons, toadstool plates do not darken when damaged, and it does not have a characteristic film under the cap. The toadstool prefers to grow in the shade among trees, while the champignon prefers to grow in open areas.
• Borovik has several doubles. These are inedible samples like gall mushroom, satanic and inedible boletus, they are similar in shape, but different in color from true white.
• Summer honey fungus is confused with deadly dangerous looking- bordered with a gallery. How to distinguish edible honey mushrooms from galerina? It does not grow in clumps, like honey mushrooms; even if the fruiting bodies are nearby, the bases of the legs never grow together. The poison of the galerina is comparable in danger to the pale grebe.
• The real chanterelle is distinguished from the false chanterelle by its corrugated cap at the edges, as well as by its coloring. The false color is brighter, orange-red.
• Butterflies can also be false. In real ones, the cap is slimy and sticky, as if smeared in oil; the cap is always spongy, without plates. False ones have a dry cap that changes color when broken.

It happens that the double is capable of misleading even an experienced assembler. When doubt arises about a found specimen, some mushroom pickers, in order to determine its toxicity, taste a cut of the raw fruiting body; if it is bitter, they throw it away. Almost all species with a sponge cap are edible, with the exception of satanic mushroom, but it looks so bright that its very appearance arouses suspicion.