Wild mushroom consumption by pickers in the south of Spain: a probabilistic approach.

A survey has been made of 300 habitual consumers of the eight species of wild mushrooms most often consumed in the south of Spain. The eight species selected constitute over 95% of the intake of this food in the samples studied. The mean consumption per capita of mushrooms in Spain is of 10.4 kg/year, 8.6 kg of which are consumed during the season, which lasts from between 1 and 3 months. Male pickers from the Huelva province were those who presented the largest intake, their age group being highly influenced by the species. The consumption of each mushroom studied and the total intake were adjusted/fitted to exponential distributions. These distributions could be an effective tool for toxicological or nutritional studies since they permit the evaluation of exposure that makes it possible to calculate the probabilistic risk analysis and the contribution to the reference dietary intake, respectively, for this population group.