Safety & emergencies

1. Severe or rapidly worsening symptoms (collapse, breathing difficulty, severe vomiting, seizures, confusion): call 999/112 or go straight to A&E. Don't wait.
2. Milder symptoms, or you're unsure whether what was eaten is a problem: call NHS 111 (England) — or the Wales 111 service / NHS 24 in Scotland — for advice on what to do next.
3. Keep a sample of the mushroom that was eaten — ideally a whole, uncooked specimen including the base of the stem (where key identifying features often are), plus a spore print if you can make one. Bring this with you to hospital or have it ready to describe to 111. Identification can take time, and some toxins (notably death cap) act with a delay, so a sample collected now may be the only way to confirm what was eaten if symptoms appear later.
4. Note what was eaten, roughly how much, when it was eaten, and when symptoms started. This timing is clinically important: a long delay between eating and symptom onset is itself a warning sign for the most dangerous toxins.
5. Do not induce vomiting unless a healthcare professional specifically tells you to. It is not a safe default action and can cause harm.

As a simple rule: if in doubt, treat it as an emergency. Severe, rapid, or worsening symptoms after eating a wild mushroom mean 999/112 or A&E, not a phone queue. If symptoms are mild, absent so far, or you just want advice after a meal involving a mushroom you're now unsure about, NHS 111 can triage and tell you what to do next. In Wales use the 111 Wales service; in Scotland, NHS 24 provides the equivalent 111 service.

Wild fungi should never be tasted or sampled casually, and this matters even more with children. Keep raw finds out of reach until an adult has fully assessed them, don't let children put unidentified fungi in their mouths 'just to try', and treat every unknown specimen as inedible until proven otherwise. If a child may have put any part of a wild mushroom in their mouth and you're unsure what it was, follow the same steps above — call 111 for advice, or 999/A&E if any symptoms appear.

• Keep different species separate in your basket (paper bags or open trays, not sealed plastic) so one doesn't contaminate your assessment of another.
• Store finds somewhere cool and processed the same day where possible; wild fungi spoil faster than shop-bought mushrooms.
• Keep a few whole, unprepared specimens of anything you plan to eat until after the meal, in case you need to identify what was eaten.
• Cook thoroughly — many edible wild species are mildly toxic or hard to digest raw — but cooking does not neutralise the toxins in genuinely poisonous species.
• Only ever prepare and eat species you are completely confident about.