Missoula man dies from foraged morels

[dowser]

Maybe.

Did we note the study of his drying method , or were samples of his morels shown to have not been preserved properly?

We also don't know the condition the packaged rice was in.
Had it dampened in the package? Undercooked?
Did Indian meal moths make holes in the package?

We don't know what killed him, I doubt something properly cooked did it. So it had to be something unproperly cooked. Germs had to cause it, maybee mold Germs? Improper storage..
I dry and store morels, and stuff.. I know an under dried food..

 

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[releventchair]

We don't know what killed him, I doubt something properly cooked did it. So it had to be something unproperly cooked. Germs had to cause it, maybee mold Germs? Improper storage..
I dry and store morels, and stuff.. I know an under dried food..

Even the water used should be suspect. Or more so what was in it.
And as a sort of control group there are survivors.

 

[dowser]

Even the water used should be suspect. Or more so what was in it.
And as a sort of control group there are survivors.

Yes, could have been the water..

 

[Red-Coat]

The unfortunate person who died was Peter Dayton and much of this information comes from an article by his widow Colleen Hunter, who has been urging more awareness about the risks of consuming morels, especially if undercooked.

On the evening of 12 April 2023, after a day’s fishing on the Green River in Utah, Mr Dayton prepared a meal for himself and a friend that included dried morels. He was an experienced outdoorsman who enjoyed foraging. He and his wife (who was not present on the trip) had gathered the mushrooms in June 2022 in the Bitterroot Mountains, dried them in a commercial grade dehydrator, and stored them in pint jars in a freezer. Mr Dayton had a quart-sized bag of them with him and remaining mushrooms from their harvest were later tested, with DNA tests confirming them to be 100% Morchella, true morels.

Mr Dayton added some of the mushrooms he had brought with him to a Ben’s Original Ready Rice Mushroom Risotto mix and used a Jet Boil stove to prepare the meal. There is a probability that the stove made ‘simmering’ difficult since he had slightly scorched the meal. The others on the trip made their own meal, not including any morels.

Within two hours of finishing their dinner, Mr Dayton became dizzy and felt unwell, as did his friend shortly afterwards. Both of them vomited and suffered from gastro-intestinal issues for several hours. Mr Dayton’s friend began to feel better, but Mr Dayton became more and more dehydrated. Mr Dayton’s friend and his sister (both of whom are retired medical doctors) commenced wilderness rehydration until about 4 a.m. when he seemed to be improving. They decided to let him sleep for a couple of hours but when they went to wake him at around 6:30 a.m. they discovered that he had died sometime in the early hours of 13 April.

The official autopsy report gave the cause of death as “acute necrotizing gastritis following ingestion of foraged mushrooms.” Mr Dayton was a robust and healthy 69-year-old.

Coincidentally, between 28 March and 17 April 2023, over 50 people were taken ill after eating at Dave’s Sushi in Bozeman, Montana. Two of them died. The source of their illness was traced to salmon and mushroom sushi rolls containing morels which were marinated, but raw or undercooked. Again, DNA sequencing confirmed them to be true morels (Morchella sextelata). The restaurant said they had been purchased from a reputable distributor in California, but one report suggested they had been imported from China. Six other restaurants had bought the same mushrooms, but they all cooked them before serving and no illnesses were reported.

In both instances the CDC and FDA were unable to identify a specific agent responsible for the illnesses. They did not find any significant pesticides, heavy metals, bacteria or other pathogens. In any case, the rapid onset of symptoms (within an hour at Dave’s Sushi) is not consistent with bacterial infection; and sensitive individuals can react adversely to trace amounts of things to which they are intolerant (or to which they have become intolerant) soon after consumption.

Only since these incidents have CDC and FDA released public guidance on consuming morels: “Consumers should eat morel and other wild-type mushrooms at their own risk. Properly preparing and cooking morel mushrooms can reduce risk of illness, however there is no guarantee of safety even if cooking steps are taken prior to consumption… The toxins in morel mushrooms that may cause illness are not fully understood; however, using proper preparation procedures, such as cooking, can help to reduce toxin levels.”

Ms Hunter has provided a link to information about consuming morels here:

https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/hEDotED1Ti2HNdqguuyM

Other research has shown that there is an approximate 1% to 2% chance of a fatal reaction to morels among people who consume them and that the trigger for those reactions is not necessarily a ‘contaminant’ in the sense that the word is normally used. Raw consumption is extremely unwise and consumption in moderation is advised since ‘over-exposure’ is one of the drivers for intolerance reactions.