The sole director of an Australian company that distributed mushroom gummies from the US that resulted in people being taken to hospital with symptoms including “disturbing hallucinations” has apologised and declared “this was not the intention”.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand on Wednesday issued a recall of two flavours of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies after reports of hospitalisations in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.
A South Australian teenage boy was found unresponsive earlier this month after consuming several gummies, the state health department said on Thursday. He was treated and has since recovered.
At least five people have been hospitalised across NSW after experiencing “unexpected toxicity” when consuming the “cordyceps” and “lion’s mane” flavours of the gummies, NSW Health said. Victoria’s health department issued a similar warning.
The Uncle Frog gummies were distributed by Oz Brands. The sole director of both companies, Rohan Bandil, said there were “many other brands selling similar products” and he had consulted widely about the product.
“We are really sorry that this happened to them, this was not the intention,” he told Guardian Australia on Thursday.
“We were just intending to bring the product and sell it in the Australian market as similar products have been extremely successful in the global market.”
An archived version of Uncle Frog’s website – which has since been replaced with a warning about the recall – said it was a Byron Bay-based business and all orders were dispatched from there.
The Uncle Frog company was registered in late 2023, listing Bandil as the sole director and Brisbane as the principal place of business. The company was deregistered on 12 June this year.
Oz Brands was registered in mid-2021 and is still operational with Bandil listed as the sole director. Its registered address is in Mascot near Sydney airport and the principal place of business is listed as the Gold Coast.
Asked why the website suggested Uncle Frog was based in Byron Bay, Bandil said he didn’t know and people in the US ran the website.
The Australian website stated the gummies were “free from CBD, CBN, and THC, and are 100% legal in Australia”.
The gummies packaging encourages customers to “experience the multiverse”, claiming they are “infused with earth’s finest hemp” at “1,000mg per serve” – equal to one gram.
The lion’s mane product purports to support “memory and focus” while the cordyceps packet boasts it provides “natural energy and power”.
Bandil said on Thursday that all future orders had been cancelled and the team had “immediately stopped sales and issued a recall notice” within an hour of being contacted by authorities about the presence of “novel” ingredients in the products.
All food sold in Australia must comply with the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. Lion’s mane and cordyceps are not approved foods – meaning they are classified as “novel foods” that cannot be sold as food or ingredients.
People who ate the gummies suffered symptoms including seizure-like activity and involuntary twitching, disturbing hallucinations, anxiety, dizziness, loss of consciousness, a racing pulse, nausea and vomiting, NSW Health said.
The NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said the five patients taken to hospital in her state had experienced “myriad symptoms” but the common factor was the consumption of gummies.
“The hypothesis is that there is some sort of substance in the product that is leading to these signs of toxicity,” she said.
Dr Kimberly Humphrey, a South Australian public health medical consultant, said the “noted effects of these gummies are alarming”.
The Food Safety Information Council chief executive, Lydia Buchtmann, said the fungi listed could not be legally sold in Australia as food and urged anyone with the product to dispose of them “out of the reach of children, especially as they are in attractive packaging that looks like confectionary”.
The Botanic Gardens of Sydney chief scientist, Dr Brett Summerell, said all mushroom products should be sourced from reliable retailers.
“Although it’s not clear the products do contain any fungal material, my concern is people will want to go out and attempt to harvest these fungi for themselves,” he said on Thursday.
“A lot of species that grow in the wild can be toxic or even deadly. They’re often difficult to identify and it’s safest to steer clear of them.”
