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posted by n1 on Wednesday September 17 2014, @10:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the secret-ingredients dept.

Analysis of wild collected food (fungi in this study) found that a single packet contained three species that had previously not been formally named in science.

Accurate diagnosis of the components of our food and a standard lexicon for clear communication is essential for regulating global food trade and identifying food frauds. Reliable identification of wild collected foods can be particularly difficult, especially when they originate in under-documented regions or belong to poorly known groups such as Fungi. Porcini, one of the most widely traded wild edible mushrooms in the world, are large and conspicuous and they are used as a food both on their own and in processed food products. China is a major exporter of porcini, most of it ending up in Europe. We used DNA-sequencing to identify three species of mushroom contained within a commercial packet of dried Chinese porcini purchased in London. Surprisingly, all three have never been formally described by science and required new scientific names. This demonstrates the ubiquity of unknown fungal diversity even in widely traded commercial food products from one of the most charismatic and least overlooked groups of mushrooms. Our rapid analysis and description makes it possible to reliably identify these species, allowing their harvest to be monitored and their presence tracked in the food chain.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @11:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @11:04AM (#94472)

    This tells me "Not to eat mushrooms from..."

    Sad; because I love shrooms....

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @11:48AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @11:48AM (#94486)

    Wild Mushroom
    5 cups chopped porcini mushrooms, half a cup of olive oil, 3 pounds of celery, chopped parsley.

    Optional: a dash of soy sauce (but it still won't be as good as lentil soup!)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 18 2014, @01:10PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 18 2014, @01:10PM (#94947)
      You're through soup nazi! No more soup for *you*.

      NEXT!
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Kell on Wednesday September 17 2014, @12:08PM

    by Kell (292) on Wednesday September 17 2014, @12:08PM (#94494)

    Undescribed Species of Porcini

    And here I was being all excited (and disturbed) by a new variety of bacon...

    --
    Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by fadrian on Wednesday September 17 2014, @12:49PM

    by fadrian (3194) on Wednesday September 17 2014, @12:49PM (#94515) Homepage

    Even if those three specie are extinct now, we know how they taste!

    --
    That is all.
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @01:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @01:06PM (#94521)

    I would never knowingly eat anything that had been produced in China, and I think it is high time for food manufacturers to list the country of origin for each ingredient on the label, and for restaurants to do the same on their menus.

    Food safety in China is atrocious [wikipedia.org], and this includes the crap they export [wsj.com]:

    In a testimony before a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in May (pdf), food safety expert Patty Lovera noted that China accounted for 80% of tilapia, 51% of cod, 49% of apple juice, 34% of processed mushrooms, 27% of garlic and 16% of frozen spinach consumed in the U.S. in 2011.

    ...More than half of food processing and packaging firms on the Chinese mainland failed safety inspections in 2011, according to a report by Asia Inspection, a China-based food quality control company. Meanwhile, in the U. S., inspections of imported food products are minute compared to the total volume of imports. According to a recent study by the Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee in 2011, FDA inspections were a mere 2.3 % of the total of all imported food products (pdf).

    ...The German magazine Der Spiegel recently posted online a list of “rejected food” imported into the EU from China during 2012, including insect-infested potatoes, rabbit meat loaded with antibiotics, oyster sauce with staphylococcus, salmonella-infected ginger, pumpkin seeds contaminated with glass chips and arsenic in frozen calamari.

    And it just so happens that even people who live in China's "rain rich" regions have a lethal inability to distinguish between edible mushrooms and poison, a fact that had been noted [archive.org] by the country's own Mnistry of Health in 2006:

    From July to September, 31 people were killed and 183 were poisoned by toxic mushrooms. The ministry reported a rise of 66.7 percent from the previous quarter who were poisoned by toxic plants and animals, resulting in 39 death.

    On the other hand, it's not like the Chinese invented terrible food safety [gutenberg.org].

    -- LentilSoupIsMentalFruit [soylentnews.org]
    (Karma cannot stop me.)

    • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday September 17 2014, @04:11PM

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 17 2014, @04:11PM (#94600)

      You would actually be modded up for posts like this.

      --
      SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @06:00PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @06:00PM (#94627)

        I don't post anonymously because I fear being downmodded. I do so because my lowly karma has left me temporarily unable to post. Kuck Farma!

        Even so, posting anonymously does not in itself prevent others from upmodding me. Yet they do not. Judging by the paltry comment count for this story, I definitely agree with your signature.

        -- LentilSoupIsMentalFruit [soylentnews.org]
        (Karma cannot stop me.)

        • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday September 17 2014, @06:33PM

          by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 17 2014, @06:33PM (#94648)

          There aren't as many mod points going around as you'd expect. I get them maybe once a week but only spend three or four of the ten. It's also possible they are reading at a 1 and don't see any AC : /

          --
          SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
          • (Score: 0) by lentilsoup on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:19PM

            by lentilsoup (4717) on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:19PM (#94663)

            Even now, the story still has only 8 comments, including ours. I think it's obvious that this is less a problem of an insufficient number of modpoints and more a problem of an insufficient number of readers. Maybe it's the time of day, or maybe it's the subject matter. But what's certain is that SN is lacking in active users.

            --
            There are no legumes but lentils, and soy is their condiment.
            • (Score: 2) by monster on Thursday September 18 2014, @10:53AM

              by monster (1260) on Thursday September 18 2014, @10:53AM (#94902) Journal

              If you return to several of your anonymous comments from previous days, you will find several upmodded (and deservedly so).

              Try to keep on the constructive posts and your karma will improve. But if you keep posting useless posts like the first ones, don't expect another result.

              • (Score: 1) by lentilsoup on Thursday September 18 2014, @09:37PM

                by lentilsoup (4717) on Thursday September 18 2014, @09:37PM (#95222)

                I was not complaining about my bad karma, monster, but for the draconian limit placed on daily posts by us sinful Soylentils. Now that it has been abolished, why, the possibilities are endless!

                But I must disagree with you, for those posts are far from useless. Mind you, I hardly expected to be upmodded for them. I do not post for karma, but for fun. And there is more than one way to have fun. Why limit myself to be a contributing member of society when there are jokes (or a reasonable approximation thereof) to be made? To quote the great Curtis Jackson, "Be funny or get downmodded trying".

                And, come to think of it, why should trolling or nonsensical posts be the privilege of The Other Site®? For years, the trolling/joking posts were what I found most pleasant on that wretched Dice infested hive of grits and Natalie. I'll have you know, Sir, that those posts brought people to #slaa.

                Lentils come in many different colors, my dear.

                --
                There are no legumes but lentils, and soy is their condiment.
                • (Score: 2) by monster on Friday September 19 2014, @07:19AM

                  by monster (1260) on Friday September 19 2014, @07:19AM (#95385) Journal

                  I'm not intending to change the way you post, just pointing out that what you may find fun, others may find distasteful or downright offensive. Also, the risk with humour in written media is you no longer have nonverbal clues about the intended mood.

                  Anyway, I don't find trolling or nonsensical posts as a privilege. They are annoying and take away the good mood in comments, IMHO, but if you really want to be that kind of member of the community, it's your decision, just make sure you are aware and accept any consequences that might come with it.