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Collecting mushrooms is trendy, especially among young people. This does not go unnoticed during fungal inspections.
«Tiktok is full of mushroom picking videos. “That motivated me to give it a try,” says a young woman, pointing to her haul. It’s a basket full of mushrooms. Which mushrooms are edible and which are even poisonous? The young woman doesn’t know that, so she took her basket to mushroom inspector Beat Zobrist.
Many mushrooms are sorted out
She is not the only neo-collector to make use of Beat Zobrist’s expertise that day. Just a few minutes later a young man comes by. “My girlfriend and I went mushrooming for the first time yesterday,” he says.
There are more and more young, inexperienced collectors who don’t know what they have collected.
For both – the young man and the young woman – Beat Zobrist sorts out most of the mushrooms: they are inedible, some are even poisonous. «There are more and more young, inexperienced collectors. We notice that,” said the mushroom inspector. “They often don’t know what they have collected, but are happy about our tips.” A trend that already emerged last year.
Legend:
Mushroom inspector Beat Zobrist doesn’t just sort out mushrooms. When time permits, he also gives inexperienced mushroom pickers tips on how to identify poisonous mushrooms.
SRF/Thomas Pressmann
In the fall of 2022, 1.6 tons of mushrooms were inspected by inspectors like Beat Zobrist in the city of Bern alone. More than we have seen in years. Over 200 kilograms of mushrooms had to be sorted out. Mushroom inspectors across Switzerland also had a lot to do last year: 40 tonnes of mushrooms were inspected and seven tonnes ended up in green waste. Including 54 kilograms of deadly poisonous mushrooms, there have never been so many.
Little severe mushroom poisoning
“We sort out poisonous mushrooms every day,” says Beat Zobrist. But he also has to dispose of specimens that are actually harmless: “Very old mushrooms, for example, otherwise there is a risk of food poisoning.” The work of the mushroom inspectors is having an impact: not a single serious or fatal mushroom poisoning was reported in 2022. In previous years, up to five serious poisonings were recorded, according to the Association of Swiss Mushroom Associations (VSVP).
Legend:
There are around 5,000 species of mushrooms in Switzerland. About 300 of these are edible; 200 species of mushrooms are poisonous or even fatal to humans.
Keystone/CHRISTIAN BEUTLER
In order to cope with the large crowds, more inspectors are on duty in the city of Bern this year. And they are longer too: new until mid-November. Because “Schwümmele” is not only becoming more and more popular, but autumn is also getting warmer, making the collecting season longer.
We sort out poisonous mushrooms every day,
By the way: The two neo-mushroom pickers want to continue collecting mushrooms that day despite the meager yield. “A work colleague who knows her stuff will take me with her next time,” said the young woman. And the young man says: “I want to read up more because I like collecting mushrooms and it would be cool to know more about it.”