North Carolina has legalized the sale of wild mushrooms to restaurants, with some caveats.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that the state this year reversed the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health's 2009 prohibition on selling wild-gathered mushrooms unless they were gathered or inspected by an approved mushroom-identification expert.
The restriction did not define "expert," and no official certification program was designated, thus making serving wild mushrooms illegal by default.
The lifting of the restrictions now requires foragers to provide restaurants with forms specifying the species of wild mushroom the forager is qualified to sell. Foragers must also obtain verification/sale tags from the health department and submit them with each sale.
There are 16 approved varieties that can be sold.
Identification training courses aren't required.
