Leading mushroom grower says the product is perfectly safe

Bulla Park chief executive, Georgia Beattie, said she was concerned at claims the mushrooms believed to be at the centre of the Leongatha poisoning case had been bought at an Asian grocer and local supermarket.

Three people died and Korumburra Baptist pastor Ian Wilkinson is gravely ill in a Melbourne hospital.

"Our sales haven't been affected at all - but it's important we are telling the community about the growing process we go through and our quality standards," Ms Beattie, who is also Australian Mushroom Growers' Association deputy chair.

She said the statement that the suspect mushrooms had been bought from a supermarket was "a bit unfair to farmers".

"We have certification that involves a series of processes and checks and balances right along the line, for every input," Ms Beattie said.

"Every input for my compost is certified and checked and the mushroom spawn is visually checked, there are also laboratory tests when the mushrooms go into the dispatch area."

At the supermarket distribution centre, the mushrooms were checked again.

A Woolworth's spokeswoman said the company had not been directed to recall any mushroom products and had not received any reports of illnesses from customers.

Coles said food safety was paramount and the company adhered to strict protocols, to ensure the highest quality products for its customers.

"Coles sells cultivated mushrooms, with various varieties on offer that are all suitable for human consumption," the spokesman said.

"We do not sell any wild foraged mushrooms."

MS Beattie said Bulla Park produces about 15-20 tonnes of organic mushrooms, each week, supplying excess fungi to the food charity Second Bite.

Ms Beattie is also a Second Bite board member.

Second Bite "rescues" edible surplus and unsold food from growers, manufacturers and retailers, before distributing it to more than 1400 charities.

It has been a partner with Coles for more than a decade.

In October, Ms Beattie will be presenting at a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization conference, in Rome.

"I will be presenting a little bit of background on what Second Bite has achieved in Australia and some example models from agriculture, as to how we could be redistributing extra farm produce to places in need," she said.

"We have all got the aim to reduce wastage - no-one wants to create waste, but it happens," Ms Beattie said.

"When it happens what we have to do is incentivise the right behaviour.

"If I have waste here, I need to transport it to a spot where it can feed hungry people."

She said Second Bite relied on partners and philanthropic donors, but supermarkets and grocers also needed to be incentivised to redistribute the waste they created.

"We have to look at best practice to put a model in place to support Second Bite and retailers like Coles," she said.

Producers also needed incentives to pass surplus food onto charities.

"I recently sent 15 pallets, or four tonnes, of mushrooms to Second Bite - but I have to pay someone to pick those mushrooms," she said.

There was also the cost of fuel, to get the mushrooms to the charity.

"Farming is hard and a lot of the time, you are just trying to get the product out the door and make ends meet," she said.

She was also hoping to bring back case studies from overseas, to present to the supermarkets.

"I think it's really unfair to think farmers are going to solve the problem of food waste by themselves, because that's just not the case," she said.

Food Bank also recently called for incentives for businesses and farms to donate to food charities.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano recently told a Federal parliamentary committee food security was an issue for Australia.

MS Beattie is a Nuffield Scholar, and is currently also researching methods of creating value for spent mushroom compost.

"Global environmental consciousness has created industry pressure to create circular economy systems, which provides a great opportunity for the Australian mushroom industry," Ms Beattie said.

"As a superfood for plants, SMC contains high levels of mycelium and organic substrate nutrients which if redistributed, poses significant benefits for soil regeneration or food production."

Through her scholarship, she said she hoped to identify alternative ways to structure and create benefit from SMC for the farmer, retailer and consumer.

Her research is focusing on on identifying technologies and innovations to establish a waste redistribution initiative for the mushroom industry.

A former chief executive of Start Up Victoria, Ms Beattie was also involved in setting up the Single Serve Packaging company.

That company developed single serve wines, in convenient packaging, for events such as music festivals.

But she said after growing up on her family's winery, she wanted to go back to farming.

She settled on mushrooms.

"They are easy to grow and there is a lot of room for this product to evolve and become the hero on the plate," she said.

"It had to be an organic farm, a vertical farm, something that wasn't cruel to animals and close to Melbourne.

"I was looking at a few different crops and mushrooms ended up being the one."

Ms Beattie said she found technology didn't interest her.

"There's not enough purpose in it for me, I am a hands-on person - so my worst day here is better than my best day in tech."

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