Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) Food Safety regulations require that mushrooms (including morels) picked in the wild for sale must be individually inspected for safety by an approved mushroom identifier. Note that these regulations do not apply to cultivated mushrooms, such as shiitakes, but only to mushrooms harvested in the wild. Cultivated mushrooms do not require approval by an approved identifier. Anyone who wants to be recognized as a mushroom identifier for the purposes of meeting this regulation must apply to KDA by email to KDA.FSL@ks.gov. The application email must include:

• The applicant's name, address, and phone number;
• The variety or varieties of wild harvested edible mushroom for which recognition is sought;
• A description of the applicant's years and kind of experience identifying mushrooms; and,
• Information about any mushroom identification courses completed by the applicant.

Once received and reviewed, KDA will add the applicant to the mushroom identification registry and notify the applicant of the registry number assigned.

Inclusion in the registry does not indicate that KDA is responsible for failure on the part of the registrants to successfully identify inedible/poisonous varieties of mushrooms.

Resources are available here.

Note: Certificates from the initial identification workshop in 2015 are still valid even though they are past the printed expiration dates. Subsequent certificates do not have expiration dates printed on them and do not expire.