Patterson,49,was remanded in custody to appear at Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in Morwell on Friday morning.

She was arrested on Thursday morning and taken to Wonthaggi Police Station for questioning in the afternoon after police searched her Leongatha home,where the family lunch was served.

Patterson was ushered into the back of a police vehicle and driven away through a roller door on one side of the police station about 8.15pm.

Patterson’s lawyer,Ophelia Hollway,left the police station about 7.20pm after five hours of questioning. Hollway refused to comment as she rushed past journalists,TV cameras and photographers to get to her car.

Earlier in the day at Patterson’s house,detectives were seen walking in and out of the garage with bags of evidence and leading specialist technology detector dogs to and from the property.

An armchair on the back deck and bushes close to the house received particularly close attention from the canines. Patterson’s red car was alsosearched several times.

Police had previously named Patterson as a suspect because she cooked the meal suspected of poisoning the group.

She strenuously denied wrongdoing and said she could not explain how the meal could have caused the group’sillnesses and deaths.

Patterson and her estranged husband Simon had been living separately for a number of years.

It has also previously emerged that Patterson’s estranged husband experienced serious gut problems that left him in intensive care for three weeks last year.

Patterson,a stay-at-home mum,gave a statement to police in August about the July lunch with her in-laws,documenting her version of events and refuting what she claims has been wildly inaccurate media reporting.

She said she had purchased the mushrooms from an Asian grocery store several months before the lunch and mixed them with button mushrooms from a local supermarket.

Patterson said she had also eaten the meal and developed gastro-like symptoms,but that they had subsided after she was given a liver-protecting drug in hospital. The mother of two said she had scraped the mushrooms off the dish and fed the leftovers to her children,who did not fall ill.

In the August statement,Patterson also said she had intentionally dumped afood dehydrator found by police in a skip bin at the Koonwarra Transfer Station after being named as a suspect.

Police conducted forensic testing of the dehydrator but have not released the results.

Investigators had previously interviewed Patterson in the days after the lunch,but released her without charge after searching her home.

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