More than 50 people in Australia experienced hallucinations and severe nausea after eating spinach. They had all eaten the baby spinach from the Costco supermarket. They developed “poisoning symptoms,” the New South Wales health authority said. The vegetables were probably “accidentally contaminated”.
“The sick patients had severe hallucinations where they saw things that weren’t there,” Darren Roberts, medical director of the state’s Poisons Center, told the Sydney Morning Herald. “You can no longer say exactly what happened.” Fortunately no one died.
Impurity with spinach
The health authority warned of “serious” possible consequences of eating spinach, including delirium, hallucinations, tachycardia and blurred vision.
To prevent further cases, customers who bought baby spinach from the supermarket chain should throw the vegetables away immediately. The production company suspects that the spinach has come into contact with weeds and has become infected. However, it only concerns this product, all other types of vegetables are not affected. (lrc)