Bags of mixed lettuce and other selected salads have been the subject of a national recall after more than 130 people suffered “hallucinations, delirium, rapid heartbeat and blurred vision” after eating contaminated greens.
Almost 90 people in NSW have reported symptoms, including more than 30 who needed medical attention. In Victoria, at least 20 people have presented to emergency departments, and in Queensland the Poisons Information Centre has received 26 calls. Over the weekend, a child was hospitalised in Brisbane.
The original culprit was Riviera Farms brand baby spinach, but Vic Health, NSW Health, ACT Health and Queensland Health have since issued statements warning against consumption of a swathe of fresh packaged supermarket products believed to be contaminated with a toxic weed.
“We’ve got a centralised food chain in Australia so a contaminated product can very quickly enter a lot of different cities and supermarkets across the country,” said Kate Howell, a microbiologist associate professor at the University of Melbourne.
“But spinach has a pretty short shelf life. It’s not like the strawberry saga where it could have been cased in someone’s freezer for a year. Things will go rotten before they effect more people.”
Food Standards Australia New Zealand have moved quickly to recall the product — and others — sold in Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and Costco supermarkets. Consumers are being urged to bin them.
The public has been advised to be vigilant and monitor for symptoms. If exposed, Martyn Kirk, an epidemiology professor from the Australian National University’s College of Health and Medicine, said people can expect the time between eating and illness to be quite short: “Normally with infectious agents, it can be some time — days — before you’re sick, but with toxins it’s normally hours.”
Health authorities are yet to put a name to the toxin. It’s also inconclusive how the greens were contaminated in the first place.
Both Kirk and Howell said the industry runs a very tight ship when cultivating fresh produce and were surprised that any form of non-spinach managed to slip through the cracks.
“The cultivation of spinach is very precisely regulated from a microbiome perspective,” said Howell. “It’s a monoculture so it’s surprising that it was contaminated.” She added that automation could be to blame.
A lot of fresh leafy greens are no longer harvested by hand so Howell said it was possible the toxic weed simply fooled the system — a spinach con artist that landed itself in salad bags and is now on national tour.
I avoid packaged leafs spinach or other leaf greens. The plastic packaging is like a sweaty greenhouse allowing all sorts of nasties to breed inside. After a couple days they can develop a nasty smell and go slimy which is hard to wash off. Yuk! I prefer my salad greens whole or loose unpackaged and bought by weight.
Agree – packaged greens, hallucinogenic effects aside, are woeful. Growing your own, even on a balcony or in a small courtyard, provides fresh leafy greens throughout the year. Win/win.
I felt euphoric, without care
I saw strange things that were not there.
I felt my heartbeat rising fast,
I said ‘Man, this stuff’s a blast!’
I’m on the drug, I’m on the drug, I’m on the drug from Riviera Spinach.
(Apologies to TISM).
Now warnings for people not to go searching for green leafy plants or grass in parks for a cheap and natural hallucinogenic experience….
I found an odd leaf in my spinach the other day. Threw it out. I wonder if that was one of them – it wasn’t any lettuce or anything I’d ever seen. It was from a bag with the recall date. having said that, my local Coles has all the recalled spinach products for sale (use by date 20/12) at cut price. When I questioned it yesterday I was told the manager said it was ok. Went back today and there’s still rows and rows of it all for reduced prices. I’m not sure what they think recall means down here :/
Am I the only one finding it odd that none of the news outlets I have consulted identify the ‘weed’? Naturally, this leads to conspiracy-like discussions about what it is that has contaminated the ‘good’ leafy greens with the main contender being baby datura leaves. If that is correct, it will be quite horrendous for the people who have consumed it.
And of course a bit of a mystery as to how the ‘weed’ got into the crop in the first place.
No you’re not the only one. Not one mention of what this mystery plant is, where it came from or how it got into so many crops.
Probably stems from a misguided sense of public protection, seems would make sense to arm people with the information to identify it so it’s not inadvertently consumed.
Finally in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/21/weed-responsible-for-hallucinogenic-spinach-recall-identified-as-applethorn
At school in the 1960s it was generally agreed that “spinach makes you die”. My first brush with wishful thinking. Turns out, however …