Food Safety

California officials warned the public after 21 people were sickened and one person died in a cluster of mushroom poisonings concentrated in Monterey and the San Francisco Bay areas, saying the toxin involved is amatoxin (not neutralized by cooking, boiling, drying or freezing) and that at least one patient may require a liver transplant. CDPH director Erica Pan urged people not to forage during the high‑risk rainy season (October–March), noting dangerous species such as the death cap (2–6 inches tall, yellowish‑green) and the destroying angel, and officials advised eating only store‑bought mushrooms or leaving wild mushrooms to extensively trained foragers.