Until last Friday, 47 people fell ill in Australia after eating a particular brand of canned baby spinach. Also, out of all of them, 17 required medical hospitalization, some with quite serious symptoms, although so far there have been no deaths to be regretted. The curious thing is that, among their symptoms, many of them showed hallucinations. They saw images that were not there.
As is logical, the batch of spinach affected has already been rremoved from supermarkets, with the consequent alert for those people who had already acquired them and had not yet taken them. Initially, only baby spinach sold in costco with expiration date December 16. Therefore, those who have it at home are warned not to consume it and return it to the establishment where they were purchased. However, given the seriousness of the situation, it has been decided to withdraw and also warn about the same spinach, with expiration of the December 28th. And also a chickpea falafel salad and a chicken salad. There are no reported cases in relation to these salads; but, given the proximity in the harvesting of the vegetables, it has been decided to take that additional precaution.
Now, what did those spinach contain to cause hallucinations in consumers? It is a difficult question to answer, although the food distributors involved and the health authorities are already analyzing the cases and they claim to have some indications, although at the moment they have not given a definitive explanation.
Spinach Doesn’t Cause Hallucinations, But Some Herbs Do
The most plausible explanation for this curious situation is that the spinach was contaminated with some wild grass whose toxins cause these hallucinations.
At the moment, both the plant remains removed and the patients’ blood and urine affected. The objective is to determine which substance is responsible for your symptoms and, thus, find the plant that could have caused them.
It should be noted that there are quality controls to prevent these situations from occurring. Even so, sometimes contamination can go unnoticed and that is where alarm bells like the ones that have been activated with these spinach come into play. As soon as some people started reporting symptoms like blurred vision, fever, dilated pupils, confusion, and hallucinationsdue precautions were taken so that the contaminated products did not continue to be distributed.
Now how has declared to The Sydney Morning Herald one of the doctors who are treating the cases, Dr. Darren Roberts, it only remains to hope that the sick do not go to more. Neither in quantity nor in severity.
Meanwhile, it is important to note that spinach is a totally healthy. Yes, it is necessary to avoid, or at least minimize, its consumption in children under three years of agedue to its high nitrate content. However, beyond that, they are not dangerous. What has happened in Australia is something caused by a punctual contamination. Eating spinach will not cause hallucinations, so you can do it without problem. Of course, if you collect them, watch out for weeds that grow next to it, it is not going to be that you get a surprise.
