The FDA is alerting industry and consumers about the use of amanita muscaria, its extracts, and some of its byproducts, including muscimol, ibotenic acid, and muscarine, in food. The agency has decided that these ingredients do not meet the standard for use in food and that their use as ingredients may be harmful. People should avoid eating foods made with these ingredients.
One of the products that did use amanita mascara extracts was Diamond Shruumz. Muscimol, a substance found in Amanita muscaria and related mushrooms, was found in nine Diamond Shruumz chocolate bar samples and four infused cones samples. Those products were linked to a deadly outbreak that sickened at least 180 people and hospitalized 73. There are three deaths potentially associated with that outbreak.
These ingredients do not meet the Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) standard and they are unapproved food additives. These ingredients are used in foods intended to have hallucinogenic effects that look like ordinary foods such as candy bars. A. muscaria and its constituents have been used in foods intended to have hallucinogenic effects, sometimes marketed as “psychedelic edibles,” “legal psychedelics,” or “mushroom edibles.”
It’s important to read labels carefully and avoid products that use any of these ingredients to protect yourself.
If you have been sickened with a food poisoning infection, please contact our experienced attorneys for help with a possible lawsuit at 1-888-377-8900 or text us at 612-261-0856. Our firm represents clients in lawsuits against grocery stores, restaurants, and food processors, and families in wrongful death cases.
By submitting a comment, you are contacting Pritzker Hageman, P.A. An attorney may contact you to ask if you would like a free consultation regarding your foodborne illness.