The offending hydrazine:

> Although recognized as an experimental carcinogen when used in high laboratory doses, there is inadequate evidence to classify Agaritine as carcinogenic to humans in amounts ingested from consuming mushrooms

I mean, if you wanted to be ultra-cautious you might avoid it, but it’s IARC Group 3. Unless you have a _very_ carefully controlled diet, it’s should probably not be high on your list of concerns, carcinogen-wise.

For context, that puts it in the same group as coffee, tea and saccharin, so not exactly something to write home about.

I don't know about saccharin, but tea is known to block iron absorption substantially, and coffee reduces cerebral blood flow (CBF) by virtue of its high caffeine content. Those are just two negative, non-trivial effects coming from those beverages.

Being in the same "group" doesn't mean it's healthy to eat long term. There need to be randomized double blind controlled trials and warning labels on synthetic foods.

Things get put in this group when the trials (generally on animals; you’re not going to get go ahead for trials of possible carcinogens on humans, generally) show inadequate evidence of carcinogenicity. Next group up is where there’s some, but ambiguous evidence on animals. For reference, agaratine is in group 3; red meat is in 2A, _two_ groups up, and most people are okay with eating that.

> warning labels on synthetic foods.

We’re talking about mushrooms here; mushrooms aren’t synthetic.

No, we're not talking about mushrooms. We're talking about genetically altered fungi.

This thread was talking about actual mushrooms. The genetically modified fungus product doesn’t contain hydrazines, I don’t think?

It's about genetically modified Aspergillus oryzae, or koji mold.

Thanks, that does put it into perspective.

That said, raw mushrooms don’t taste great anyway, so… I’d recommend frying them, and skipping the hydrazine issue altogether.

Says you - personally I love raw chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced.

YMMV as is often said here.