The 50-year-old’s defence team will continue to question the case’s lead investigator today, after he spent four days in the witness box last week.

Detective Senior Constable Stephen Eppingstall presented the jury with evidence collected by the police, encompassing both the time before and after Patterson prepared the meal on July 29, 2023, which included her shopping list.

“And I’ve been very, very helpful with the health department through the week because I wanted to help that side of things.”

Patterson then lied to the police, when asked if she owned a food dehydrator she said “no” and “I might’ve had one years ago”.

“When I got the Thermomix I got really excited about, like, making everything from scratch,” she said.

Her defence team admitted at the beginning of the trial this was a lie, as was her claim to police she had “never” foraged for mushrooms.

Patterson has entered a plea of not guilty to the three murder charges and one charge of attempted murder. Her defense attorneys argue that the death cap mushroom-infused meal was a “terrible accident”.

Her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, all died in hospital days after eating the meal made by Patterson at her Leongatha home. Ian Wilkinson survived.

The trial before Justice Christopher Beale in the regional Victorian town of Morwell continues.