Food claiming to have 'wild mushrooms' rarely do

Harvesting wild mushrooms requires an expert eye to distinguish between the delicious and the inedible. Misidentification can have a range of consequences, from a disgusting taste and mild illness to organ failure and even death. Culinary wild mushrooms staples, such as truffles or porcini, require symbiotic relationships with specific plants in the ecosystem that make it impractical or impossible to produce them commercially. This means they can only be harvested from their natural habitat, which is why porcini and truffles are often so expensive. Many food producers opt for common fungi that can be cultivated easily and grown in large quantities, such as oyster, shiitake, and portabella mushrooms.

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