Don’t eat your Christmas tree, Belgians warned, after city posts food tips
The Ghent website had suggestions on how to recycle the conifers at the dinner table, such as by making flavoured butter with the needles
Some things may go without saying, but just in case … Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up Tuesday: don’t eat your Christmas tree.
The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s northern Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table.
Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town website suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried – for use in making flavoured butter, for instance.
Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply from Belgium’s federal agency for food chain security, AFSCA, was a resounding “No”.
“Christmas trees are not destined to enter the food chain,” it said in a statement.
“There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe – either for people or animals,” it said, citing the likely presence of pesticides on most trees cultivated for the season.
