A few hours after the first appeal, the ASL of Sassari finds itself forced to launch a second appeal to the population : « Contact the mycological inspectorate, a free service that can save your life ». The general director of the ASL of Sassari Flavio Sensi does not mince words: « You do not joke with mushrooms, because of a carelessness we could put our life and that of our loved ones at risk . Contact our mycologists, experts made available to the population who, free of charge, provide a precise and timely certification of edibility of mushrooms ».
In the last few hours, a forty-year-old man from the area showed up at the Emergency Room of the Sassari hospital with very severe gastrointestinal symptoms : a couple of hours earlier he had consumed a plate of mushrooms. The mushroom poisoning protocol was immediately activated. The health workers, with the advice of the Mycologists of the ASL n.1, treated the patient, who was left under observation for an entire night.
The mycologists' investigation then revealed that what to an inexperienced eye had seemed to be specimens of "antunna", were discovered to be specimens of "Clitocybe gibba", "Pleurotus ostreatus" edible species, and of "Entoloma sinuatum" a very common but equally dangerous mushroom , in France called "le perfide" precisely because of its captivating appearance, always clean and with a typical smell of flour. A toxic mushroom that causes severe gastro-intestinal disorders. And it was precisely the "Entoloma sinuatum" that sent the forty-year-old from Sassari to the hospital.
"The advice is always the same: always contact a mycologist before consuming mushrooms; this is an expert made available to the population by the ASL of Sassari and who, free of charge, is able to classify and make an exact selection of mushrooms", explains Pietro Murgia, the head of the Mycological Inspectorate of the ASL of Sassari who reminds us that "due to the poor digestibility of some of the substances that compose them, . Furthermore, all species should be consumed after cooking and depending on the species, some, such as "chiodini" for example, must be subjected to a pre-boiling treatment, with the removal of the cooking water, others to prolonged cooking, others require the removal of the stem or cuticle. We remind you that it is always recommended not to exceed the consumption of two hundred grams of fresh mushrooms per person per week".
