Food / Environment

Lethal lunch in Australia turns spotlight to wild mushroom foraging

17:27 pm on 8 August 2023

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Australian investigators say it's unclear whether the woman who cooked a lunch that turned lethal ate the mushrooms that are believed to have fatally poisoned three other diners.

Another person is seriously ill in hospital after the shared meal in a small south Gippsland town in Victoria.

Police have spoken to a woman, who is the daughter in law, of two of those who've died.

Her children have been taken to care, while the investigation continues and items removed from her home for forensic testing.

The case has turned the spot light on foraging, or collecting wild food.

Peter Langlands is a professional forager and spoke to Lisa Owen.