Avoid possible death from mushrooms as peak season arrives

In Yunnan province, summer storms bring more than water: They bring mushrooms, money and ambulances. Just ask the farmers who gather more than 900 mushroom species in the region, the traders who sell them and the doctors who treat people who get sick when they're wrong.

Liu Zhitao, director of the Nutrition and Food Hygiene Institute at the Yunnan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that more than 200 wild species are known to be toxic — including around 20 that are deadly. Many of the dangerous varieties closely resemble safe ones, making visual identification challenging even for experienced foragers.

As Yunnan enters its peak wild mushroom season, from June to August, local health authorities have rolled out a risk-assessment system to prevent poisoning.

"For high-risk counties, authorities are stepping up prevention efforts, including medical training at township health centers, improved intensive care capabilities at county-level hospitals and smoother patient-transfer procedures," Liu said.

Horror stories of mushroom poisoning crop up every year, said Xiao Yunqian, director of the emergency department of Pu'er City Central Hospital. Since late May there have been about 100 cases.

"People should seek immediate medical attention if they experience symptoms of wild mushroom poisoning and bring any leftover mushrooms or samples of vomit or excreta, to be tested at the hospital," Xiao said.

"In 2025, I ate a plate of mushrooms and got poisoned. Then I found that my refrigerator wanted to borrow money from the washing machine. The washing machine said it didn't have any. So the refrigerator came to me for money. After I recovered from the poisoning, I bought a new refrigerator and a new washing machine because I was scared," one comment read on China's social media platform Xiaohongshu.

While medical experts address the clinical side, people working in the commercial mushroom trade and culinary field are focusing on prevention. Their daily work helps keep toxic varieties out of the supply chain.

Luo Wei, general manager of a mushroom trading center in Lijiang, said the center has hired experienced mushroom farmers and provided them with professional training to guide tourists through the foraging process to help them avoid toxic species.

"The center has produced posters of poisonous mushrooms and distributed them to visitors for basic identification," Luo said.

Zhang Jianqiang, executive chef at two Aishangjun mushroom hotpot restaurants near Kunming's old town, said all mushrooms must be screened by experienced staff before being cooked. All must be cooked through. Stir-fried varieties require generous oil and extended cooking time, while boiled mushrooms require at least 25 minutes on the heat, Zhang said. Adding plenty of garlic, can help reduce bacterial risks.

As local initiatives and industry efforts center on prevention and safety practices, their effectiveness is reflected in recent research findings. According to a report published recently in China CDC Weekly, 828 mushroom poisoning incidents were recorded across 27 provincial-level regions in China last year, affecting 2,165 people. The five hardest-hit provinces were Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan and Shandong.

Notably, Shandong climbed to fifth place with a sharp increase in cases, a shift that researchers link to climate change. China experienced pronounced warming and increased rainfall in 2025, which likely expanded the habitat of toxic mushrooms northward and contributed to the higher rate of poisonings in northern provinces such as Shandong.

Although the number of incidents and people reached a seven-year high, fatalities were the lowest on record. The death rate fell to 0.6 percent, the lowest since 2019. Researchers attribute the encouraging trend to greater public awareness of mushroom risks, quicker emergency response times and more effective clinical treatment.

The report also pointed to a new concern: Sixty-nine patients in 20 separate incidents had eaten poisonous mushrooms purchased from commercial sources. Of those, four cases were linked to wild mushrooms purchased online.