HEALTH officials and grocers in Victoria have hit back at claims made by the mum who cooked a mushroom lunch that left three dead.
Erin Patterson, 48, told cops the mushroom she used in the beef wellington were bought from two different stores in her area.
Erin Patterson said she used mushrooms bought from two different shopsNews.com.au.
NineCops said the people who died had symptoms of having eaten death cap mushrooms[/caption]
After eating the lunch at the mum’s home in Leongatha, Australia, on July 29 the guests became violently ill.
Gail and Don Patterson, her former in-laws, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson later died, while Heather’s husband Ian is in a critical condition.
Erin said the mushrooms were a mixture of button mushrooms from a major supermarket chain near her home, and dried mushrooms from an Asian grocery store in Mount Waverley months before.
But despite her claims she bought the fungus from shops in the state, Victoria’s Health Department has no health alerts for any mushroom sales.
Asian shops and mushroom growers in the area have also not had any issues reported to them, and none of their mushroom products have been recalled, reports the Herald Sun.
The Australian Mushroom Growers Association said: “Given the recent focus on mushrooms, the AMGA feels it necessary to inform the public that commercially grown mushrooms, produced in Australia, are safe and high quality.
“The only poisonous mushrooms are those picked in the wild.”
Cops said the people who died had symptoms of having eaten death cap mushrooms, which grow wild in the lush forests around Leongatha.
They last week confirmed Erin was being treated as a suspect.
The mum-of-two has since admitted lying to police when she told them she had dumped a food dehydrator at a local tip “a long time ago” – which was later seized by cops.
Erin said she was at the hospital with her kids “discussing the food dehydrator” when her ex-husband asked: “Is that what you used to poison them?”.
Worried she might lose custody of the couple’s children, Erin said she then panicked and dumped the dehydrator at the tip.
Erin also confirmed that her ex-husband, Simon, had planned to join the fatal lunch but told her “prior to the day” that he would not be coming.
In her first detailed account of the lunch, shesaid she served the meal and allowed the guests to choose their own plates – and she also ate a portion of the beef wellington herself.
Erin said she was taken by ambulance from the Leongatha Hospital to the Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne on July 31.
Gippsland Southern Health Service confirmed a fifth person came to Leongatha Hospital on July 30 with suspected food poisoning.
As her guests fell ill, Erin said she was contacted by the Department of Health and asked about the deadly meal.
She said she kept some of the lunch and gave it to toxicologists for examination.
Erin said: “I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones.
“I am hoping this statement might help in some way.
“I believe if people understood the background more, they would not be so quick to rush to judgement.
“I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones.
“I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved.”
NineHeather Wilkinson (left) died after the lunch while her husband, Ian, is fighting for his life[/caption]
NineGail Patterson, Erin’s former mother-in-law, died after eating the meal at Erin’s home[/caption]
NineDon Patterson also died[/caption]
Erin’s ex-husband Simon was supposed to go to the lunch – but pulled out at the last minute