A woman died after eating a dish of "poisonous" mushrooms at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain while out celebrating her husband's birthday on Saturday.
According to The Telegraph, María Jesús Fernández Calvo died a day after eating a rice and morchella fungi dish at RiFF restaurant in Valencia. She began suffering from vomiting and diarrhea shortly after eating the dish, which can be poisonous if not prepared properly.
It has since emerged that 11 other people dining at the restaurant over the weekend suffered from food poisoning, including Fernandez Calvo’s husband and son, The Telegraph reported.
The restaurant has voluntarily shut down while health inspectors investigate whether the or not the mushrooms were properly prepared, the New York Post reported.
Regional health chief Ana Barceló explained that raw food samples had been sent for testing at the National Toxicology Institute.
"We will have to wait before we can determine whether it was the ingestion of a food that directly caused her death, or whether it prompted a state that led to this fatal outcome," she said.
RiFF’s chef and owner Bernd Knöller said he has been cooperating with the Valencian health authority to clear up the facts, "with the hope that we can establish the causes as soon as possible," and that initial inspections on Monday produced a clean bill of health, the Post reported.
"I want to convey my deep regret for what happened, hoping that soon all these facts can be clarified," Knoller said in a statement, adding that the restaurant would remain closed until authorities can confirm what led to Fernández Calvo's death.
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