In Australia, toxic spinach has prompted an urgent health alert after consumers experienced severe sickness and hallucinations.
Nine people who consumed the Riviera Farms baby spinach from Costco required medical attention.
According to medical professionals, these patients have also experienced delirium, elevated heart rates, and blurred vision.
The spinach, according to Riviera Farms, was tainted by a weed, but no other products were impacted.
New South Wales Health has warned any packets of the brand’s spinach with an expiry date of December 16 are not safe to consume and should be thrown out.
It also urged anyone who has experienced any unusual symptoms after eating the spinach to immediately seek hospital care.
“No one has died, so we’re very happy with that and we hope it remains that way, but these people are quite sick… to the point of marked hallucinations, where they are seeing things that aren’t there,” Dr Darren Roberts, from the state’s Poisons Information Centre, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
A Riviera Farms spokesperson said they had taken action immediately, asking shops to remove them from shelves.
“There is no suggestion, and to our knowledge no possibility, that any other products have been impacted by this weed,” they said.
All of those affected so far are from Sydney, NSW Health said, but it has alerted authorities in other states as it investigates.