You may want to limit “you can eat mushrooms raw” to the commercially grown kinds sold at stores. For foraged mushrooms other rules apply.

I'd never dream of picking my own - they all look too much alike to me. Gnome & hedgehog territory ;)

More for me then!

Enjoy!! I live in London… I wouldn't eat anything that grew outdoors here ;))

Maybe supermarket mushrooms are cleaner where you are but in stores around me they are downright filthy and I always wash them thoroughly. Especially if eating raw. Just my experience!

Pretty much any you get here [UK] you can just eat out of the punnet. A few at the bottom might be a bit peaty.

All relevant health authorities recommend rinsing all vegetables (except when removing the skin) before consumption. You simply have no idea what happens to the mushroom punnets during transport and storage. Dirt, mould and bacteria can absolutely accumulate (and the latter two can grow). Supermarkets explicitly label the exceptions as “ready to eat” or similar. Mushrooms in the UK carry no such label.

& yet, 60 years down the road… they haven't managed to kill me yet. Honestly, some people could live in a nuclear bunker with crash helmet & seat belt worn permanently & still fear being run over by a bus.

First supermarket I could find… Waitrose… posh one… "To prepare: Cultivated mushrooms are usually very clean: just wipe with a kitchen towel or rinse briefly and dry before use. Do not peel. Leave the mushrooms whole or slice as necessary." Also see cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/55250/…

@Tetsujin You should definitely know that “it never harmed me”-type anecdotes are a logical fallacy, and are no valid basis for health advice. That said, I wasn’t aware of the Waitrose advice. I won’t wash Waitrose mushrooms in the future. — But as you yourself note, they’re one of the posher ones. Not all supermarkets may have similar standards (but I’ll keep my eyes peeled!).

Wear your seatbelt too. Wash before use is CYA lawyer-speak for don't blame us.

No, you don't generally need to wash mushrooms before you cook them, but if a lot of them are covered in peat (as is often the case for the ones I buy, at least) a quick rinse in a colander is much faster than brushing every mushroom.

@Tetsujin Actually I’m confused: the information behind that link absolutely supports that you should in general wash mushrooms. How did you find that link and conclude that it supports your “don’t need to wash” stance?

@Tetsujin “Wash before use” is what the health authorities (including the NHS!) tell you to do. Where the heck did you get the idea that this would be “CYA laywer-speak”?!