How to choose shiitake mushrooms? Remember these tips to refuse smuggled goods and pick good domestic shiitake mushrooms

Before the Dragon Boat Festival and Lunar New Year, it is peak season for smuggling mainland Chinese shiitake mushrooms, because domestic seasonal demand for shiitake mushrooms is high and smuggling them is profitable. A common and effective trick to deceive consumers is to thoroughly mix mainland Chinese shiitake mushrooms with domestic ones before selling them, greatly reducing costs while fully disguising them. Customs often catches smuggled shiitake mushrooms. Looking at the appearance of smuggled and domestic shiitake mushrooms, it is really hard to tell them apart. Experts say there is an obvious difference in aroma, and if consumers do a blind test of origin, this is probably the only trick they can use.

At the end of last month, the Kaohsiung Customs of the Ministry of Finance Customs Administration seized a 40-foot imported container concealing 2.2 metric tons of dried shiitake mushrooms and 8.1 metric tons of dried shredded shiitake mushrooms, with a market value estimated at NT$10 million. Customs said that before the Dragon Boat Festival there is high demand for materials for wrapping zongzi, and shiitake mushrooms are an essential ingredient. Seeing that mainland Chinese shiitake mushrooms are low in price, unscrupulous people often smuggle and sell them for profit. Looking closely at the shiitake mushrooms seized by Customs, their appearance is very similar to domestic shiitake mushrooms and difficult to distinguish.

The smuggled mainland Chinese shiitake mushrooms seized by Customs have had their stems removed, and the caps are also wrinkled. (Image / Customs Administration)

Taichung and Nantou are the main production areas for domestic shiitake mushrooms in Taiwan, China. The best way for ordinary consumers to tell them apart is to buy from a trustworthy source, for example from a mushroom farmer they know. Those who do not know any mushroom farmers can buy brands from farmers' associations; both the Xinshe Farmers' Association and the Yuchi Township Farmers' Association have shiitake mushroom products. Wu Jinchi, director of the tourism department of the Xinshe District Farmers' Association, explained how they cooperate with mushroom farmers. The Xinshe District Farmers' Association has 325 contract mushroom farmers. Contracted shiitake mushrooms must be produced in a mode that complies with production traceability. After harvest, they must pass SGS testing before entering the farmers' association's packaging plant, which complies with the ISO22000 food safety management system, for packaging. Wu Jinchi believes that production traceability is the first step consumers can trust, and the next is that the farmers' association brand has the farmers' association's reputation as a guarantee.

Wu Jinchi said that if the shiitake mushrooms are sold loose, to distinguish whether they are domestic or smuggled mainland Chinese goods, you can first look at their appearance and then smell their aroma. The stems of smuggled mainland Chinese shiitake mushrooms may already have been cut off; if not cut off, they will be longer than the stems of domestic shiitake mushrooms. The caps differ because of different drying methods: mainland Chinese shiitake mushrooms are relatively smooth, while the caps of Taiwan, China shiitake mushrooms have obvious wrinkles. As for aroma, you can tell as soon as you smell it: Taiwan, China shiitake mushrooms are fresh and fragrant, while smuggled mainland Chinese shiitake mushrooms smell musty.

Some consumers may have noticed that some domestic shiitake mushrooms do not smell fragrant enough. Wu Jinchi said that is because the varieties are different. Shiitake mushroom varieties are broadly divided into two types: fresh-eating shiitake mushrooms and drying shiitake mushrooms. The variety specially used to make dried shiitake mushrooms is "Heizao", which has a full aroma after drying. But sometimes when the yield of fresh-eating shiitake mushrooms is too large, growers also choose to make them into dried shiitake mushrooms. Because the varieties are different, the aroma of the dried shiitake mushrooms naturally differs.

Domestic shiitake mushrooms have obvious wrinkles on the caps and thick, short stems.