Children should not pick wild food unsupervised, says quango

It was described by Keats as the season of mellow fruitfulness, when the countryside is full of nature's bounty.


But the traditional harvest-time pursuit of hedgerow-picking has been targeted by a government quango that says children should not gather wild food unsupervised.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA), which escaped last week's money-saving cull of public bodies, has also warned against eating anything that hasn't been washed or fruit that is "unhealthy looking" or "bruised".


The advice was published on Thursday – the same day the Coalition announced plans to inject "common sense" into health and safety.

Countryside campaigners dismissed the guidelines as "unnecessary rubbish" and said children had been picking blackberries and other fruit safely for centuries, using their common sense.

The two-page warning, posted on the agency's website, begins: "It is autumn, and many of our hedgerows are prime sites for the traditional pursuits of gathering wild berries and hunting for mushrooms.

"This harvest can contribute to our daily diet, but care needs to be taken to make sure it is safe to eat."

It lists "dos and don'ts" including "Don't allow children to pick or eat wild food unsupervised" and "Do wash your harvest well, wherever you have collected it".

Robin Page, farmer and chairman of the Countryside Restoration Trust, said: "People use their common sense not to eat what they don't recognise, so I don't see a need for this unnecessary rubbish.

"Children learn early on to stay away from mushrooms and their parents know when it is safe for them to do it unsupervised.

"Besides, in my parish I have never heard of anyone getting ill picking hedgerows. They are more likely to get ill at a Chinese restaurant."

Alan Pearce, author of It's Health and Safety Gone Mad!, said: "This demonstrates that it might be too late to reverse the health and safety culture in Britain, where the genie is out of the bottle.

"It would seem common sense that picking hedgerows is a good way to learn about what is dangerous and that advice isn't always in proportion to the risk."

The quango guidance also warns about mushrooms which, it says, are "notoriously easy to get wrong".

River Cottage television chef and wild food enthusiast Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall said there was no reason why older children should not pick fruit on their own.

However, he added: "If the rising popularity of wild food means more people are foraging in the countryside who don't know what to avoid then safety advice would seem eminently sensible.

"Blackberries are fine, we all know what they look like, but they are the exception to the rule as many plants and berries are harmful."

Matthew Oates, nature adviser at the National Trust, said: "A lot of us remember getting ill as children eating something from the wild that we shouldn't have.

"Yew trees have small fleshy fruit but the seeds are poisonous, and I can remember boys spitting the seeds out while waiting at the bus stop, to annoy the girls.

"Lots of plants, even those in suburban gardens such as laurel, holly berries, or deadly nightshade are very dangerous indeed and makes sense not to pick fungi at all unless you really know what you are doing."

Adrian Morris, of The Ramblers, said: "Picking blackberries and other wild food in the Autumn is one of the joys of countryside walking.

"However, it's always better to be safe than sorry, be aware of guidance and if you're unsure about an item, don't eat it."

A spokeswoman for the FSA said figures from the Health Protection Agency showed its National Poison Information Service – used by doctors and patients – dealt with 209 enquiries relating to mushrooms this year, compared to 123 in the whole of last year.

She also raised the case of Nicolas Evans, author of bestselling book The Horse Whisperer, who is still awaiting a kidney transplant after eating poisonous mushrooms that left him and his family seriously ill in 2008.

"If this advice has helped save one life or prevent one person being on dialysis then it is worthwhile," she said.

Lord Young of Graffham is to conduct a full review of current health and safety rules, including red tape that can prevent children from going on school outings.

He has said: "For too long, health and safety has been allowed to become a joke in the media and among the public. It's about time it was taken seriously."

By Alastair Jamieson

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/countryside/8068290/Children-should-not-pick-wild-food-unsupervised-says-quango.html