Belgium’s Federal Food Agency has issued a warning against consuming Christmas trees after Ghent’s council suggested repurposing the trees in recipes. The agency highlighted safety concerns, including potential pesticide and flame retardant presence, making the trees unsuitable for consumption.
The holiday season has wrapped up. What are you doing with the Christmas tree? Well, don’t eat them.
Belgium food agency
issued an unusual warning on Tuesday after the city of Ghent suggested reusing pine needles in recipes as a way to reduce waste.
The country’s Federal Food Agency (FASFC) issued the warning after Ghent’s local council launched a campaign last week urging people to recycle their Christmas trees in various ways including eating the conifers for an eco-friendly approach.
The council suggested making flavoured butter and soup from the pine needles and added that it was inspired by traditional Scandinavian recipes.
Belgium’s federal agency for food chain security, AFSCA, reacted to the bizarre suggestion put forward by the local council and said, “No”.
“Christmas trees are not destined to enter the food chain,” AFSCA said in a statement.
The agency added that the Christmas trees aren’t safe to be eaten, and also hinted the likely presence of pesticides on most trees cultivated for the season.
“There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe, either for people or animals,” it said.
The agency further warned, “What’s more, there is no easy way for consumers to tell if Christmas trees have been treated with flame retardant and not knowing that could have serious, even fatal consequences. In short, there are many reasons not to promote nor encourage the re-use of Christmas trees in the food chain.”
Earlier the post from the local council on its website read, “In Scandinavia, they have been doing it for a long time: picking the needles from the branches, briefly immersing them in boiling water, pouring them through a sieve and drying them on a clean cloth. Once the needles are dry, you can make delicious spruce needle butter with them for bread or toast”.
After the Belgium food agency’s warning, the local council tweaked its post and changed the headline from ‘Eat your Christmas tree’ to ‘Scandinavians eat their Christmas trees’. They also added a warning on the website stating that “not all Christmas trees are edible.”
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So, while repurposing your Christmas tree, it’s probably best to skip the ideas where it suggests you eat them! Maybe, use them for your next art project!
(Pic courtesy: iStock)
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
