Iowa Wild-Harvested Mushroom Certification
What is the Wild-Harvested Mushroom Certification?
Per Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, & Licensing Food Code 5701C, to legally sell eight different types of wild-harvested mushrooms in Iowa, sellers must complete a certification workshop that covers the identification and differentiation of these mushrooms from their look-alikes. The Iowa Food Code defines a "certified wild-harvested mushroom identification expert" as the following:
"An individual who has within the last three years successfully completed a wild-harvested mushroom identification training program provided by an accredited college, university, or state mycological society. The training program must include a component of actual identification of physical specimens or simulations of mushroom species. A document must be issued by an accredited college, accredited university, or state mycolocgial society certifying the individual's successful completion of the wild-harvested mushroom identification training program and specifying the species of wild mushrooms the individual is qualified to identify."
People can be poisoned by eating misidentified mushrooms. By the end of the certification workshop, participants will be able to confidently identify the legally sold wild mushrooms in Iowa (listed in the table below) and differentiate them from common poisonous lookalikes.
Certificates are valid for three years from the date of completing the attended workshop. Registration is open to out-of-state individuals who hunt and sell in Iowa, but keep in mind that local certification may be required to sell in your home state.
Consumer advisory statement in the ruling: "A consumer advisory shall inform consumers by brochures, deli case, menu advisories, label statements, table tents, placards, or other effective written means that ‘wild-harvested mushrooms should be thoroughly cooked and may cause allergic reactions or other effects.”
2026 Workshops
Every year in the spring, ISU Extension and Outreach offers workshops for anyone interested in being certified to sell wild-harvested mushrooms in Iowa. All in-person training sessions are held in Ames, IA. (Note: We are actively working on an alternative to the on-campus portion of the workshop, with hopes to have a solution by 2027 at the latest.) Dates and links to register for the 2026 workshops are listed below*:
Saturday, March 14, 1-3 p.m., Ames, IA (Registration deadline: March 7)
Saturday, March 28, 1-3 p.m., Ames, IA (Registration deadline: March 21)
Saturday, April 11, 1-3 p.m., Ames, IA (Registration deadline: April 4)
*Each option has a mandatory 1-hour webinar that takes place on the Wednesday evening prior to the workshop. Materials covered in this webinar will be included in the certification exam, which requires a score of 80% or higher to pass.
Registration fees: There are two options for registration- Certificate registration ($80) and Non-certificate registration ($60). For more information about these two options, please refer to the details in the registration form. For questions about the training, email pidc@iastate.edu.
What to expect in the ISU Wild-Harvested Mushroom Certification Workshop?
Content covered in the workshop will prepare participants for the certification exam, which is administered in person at the end of the workshop. Each workshop date is divided into two parts:
- The online pre-workshop webinar covers two major things: the Food Code definitions, criteria, and specifics, AND the basics of fungal ecology and some macroscopic fruiting body morphology.
- The in-person workshop (required for the certificate) covers foraging safety and ethics, and dives into morphological features of the eight legal-to-sell types of mushrooms in Iowa and their poisonous lookalikes. There is a hands-on specimen identification lab portion after the classroom learning, followed by a final review and then the certification exam. Participants who pass (with at least an 80%) leave the workshop with their full-size and wallet-sized certificates in hand.
Legal-to-Sell Mushrooms in Iowa (Per Iowa Food Code 5701C)
| Common name(s) | Scientific name(s) | Image example |
|---|---|---|
| Morels (yellow, black, half-free morels) | Morchella americana (syn. M. esculentoides) |  |
| Oyster (golden, pearl, aspen, lung) |  | |
| Chicken of the woods, sulfur shelf |  | |
| Hen of the woods/maitake | Grifola frondosa |  |
| Chantarelles | Cantharelles "cibarius" group |  |
| Toothed mushrooms (bear's head tooth, lion's mane) |  | |
| Pheasant back/dryad saddle | Polyporus squamosus (syn. Cerioporus squamosus) |  |
| Black trumpet | Craterellus cornucopoides |  |
