Belgium is warning its citizens not to eat their leftover Christmas trees after local authorities reportedly told citizens that the trees' needles could be used in meals.
The country's Federal Food Agency (FASFC)warning came after the city of Ghent's council made a social media post suggesting that locals use their Christmas trees in recipes to help reduce waste.
"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," the council said on its website, according to Euronews. "Once the needles are dry, you can make delicious spruce needle butter with them for bread or toast."
"Christmas trees are not meant to end up in the food chain," Hélène Bonte, a spokesperson for FASFC, told Politico. "The consumption of the pine species 'yew' can have serious, even fatal, consequences."
While the council specified in its post that the trees were only edible if they were "not yew" and had not been chemically treated, FASFC said that it is difficult for the average person to determine this on their own.
"There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe – either for people or animals," FASFC said according to Euronews.
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