Mushroom Safety Forum

From 5 to 7 June, a special forum on mushroom safety was organised in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province by …From 5 to 7 June, a special forum on mushroom safety was organised in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province by Edible Fungi Chamber, CFNA and China Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS). This forum was strongly supported by the government and several senior officials respectively from Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) were present. In total, over 500 attendees including growers, researchers and traders met in Zhangzhou. After the forum, participants toured around a mushroom farm growing Pleurotus eryngii.

Recently, it is reported melamine contamination in pet food and livestock feed from China was found in United States. Also, the Japanese media exaggerated the contamination hazard of imported Chinese food including mushroom, which have an impact on the credit of Chinese mushrooms. The mushroom safety issue is of more concern than ever before in China, the leading mushroom producer and consumer.

On June 5, Dr. Lin Wei, Deputy Director of Exp.& Imp. Food Safety Bureau of AQSIQ delivered a wonderful presentation on mushroom safety control and farm management. Dr. Lin emphasized the significance of supervision of potential hazard in supply chain, from farm to table, and determined to take actions aiming at those abusing chemicals.

Many Chinese experts and advisors argued turning home-oriented growing to large-scale standard production is an effective way. This may be suitable for enoki and eryngii, but not available for shiitake. As for outdoors grown mushrooms, for example, log-grown shiitake how to prevent and control disease without chemicals remains a big challenge for the industry. Few growers apply pesticide improperly would lead to chemicals residue in a mass of mushrooms sourced by traders from lots of growers. Therefore, most importantly, teaching the growers to keep farm sanitation and use chemicals under the guidance of technicians is the first step to implement.

Mr. Hitoshi Ohashi, a world-renowned Japanese mushroom expert, gave a briefing regarding up-to-date mushroom production and future trends in Japan. He maintained the GAP is a good tool to assure mushroom safety. He was worried a bit that the import drop may damage the interest of both Japanese consumers and Chinese growers. No one would like to see the outbreak of shiitake conflict which occurred in 2002 again.

Chinese Mushroom Festival

During the forum, the CFNA and Government of Zhangzhou Municipality signed a letter of intent on cooperation to jointly host the 1st Chinese Mushroom Festival (Chinese Mushroom Day) in November 2007. Zhangzhou is called “mushroom city” as almost 80% of Chinese canned mushrooms are produced here. In the festival, a mushroom expo, a cooking contest, a composting workshop and a farm tour would be held.