The Belgian Food Agency advises against eating your Christmas tree

Go ahead and recycle your Christmas tree. But please, Belgian authorities say, don’t try eating it.

The country’s federal food agency issued the unusual warning this week After a suggestion From the climate-friendly city of Ghent.

If you’re trying to reduce food waste during the holidays, the city recently said on the environment page of its website, why not make “delicious spruce needle butter” using leftover needles from your holiday tree?

“It’s a breeze,” the city’s post said. “This way your Christmas tree will not be 100 percent waste.”

The city acknowledged the potential for health risks in the rough branches. Yew, an evergreen plant, can be poisonous. She added that trees treated with pesticides and fire retardants also pose a risk.

Ghent credited Scandinavian chefs with the idea of ​​picking the needles, boiling them, drying them, and then turning them into flavored butter. “In Scandinavia, they’ve been doing this for a long time,” the city wrote.

It turns out that’s not entirely true, with Scandinavian food historians saying it’s far from a widespread tradition. The Belgian Food Agency quickly urged the public not to conduct such a gourmet experiment.

“Christmas trees are not meant to end up in the food chain,” Helen Ponte, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in an email on Wednesday.

A consumer may not know if their tree contains flame retardants, she said. Pesticides pose a threat, as Christmas trees are often treated extensively. Misidentification could be fatal, Ms. Ponte said, because eating yew “can have serious, even fatal, consequences.”

Even if parts of evergreen plants are sometimes used in cooking, not all of them are edible, she said: “There is a difference between using needles from virgin nature and needles from trees grown specifically for Christmas and to decorate at home.”

She later sang Edit this post On its website, adding information about pesticides and changing the phrase “Eat your Christmas tree” to “Scandinavians eat Christmas trees.”

This assertion surprised some of those who know the region’s food best. “We don’t eat our own Christmas trees,” said Bettina Pohl, the exhibit’s curator. Food historian at the Green Museum in Onning, Denmark.

“I have a lot of old cookbooks published in Denmark, and I’ve never seen this before,” she added, laughing. “It’s a completely new idea.”

In response to questions, the climate team in Ghent She said she has always urged caution about consuming evergreen plants and that the city is focusing on green policies.

“The social media post about culinary uses for Christmas tree needles fits into a broader context of reuse, recycling and the circular economy,” she said in an email on Wednesday.

Ghent’s suggestion isn’t the only creative approach to trying to recycle a holiday tree. Although the corpses of many holiday evergreens are disposed of with garbage bags, others often find a useful and sustainable second life.

in Britain and Germanythe discarded trees were used as toys for zoo animals. In New York City, it is turned into wood chips and mulch to feed trees in parks. Gardeners around the world are replanting it. Birders use them for feeders. Artisans make bags and coasters.

But snacks don’t seem to be common. Food historians say the Scandinavian connection is tenuous at best.

“There is an idea around the world that in Scandinavia we eat absolutely everything green,” said Nina Bauer, an environmental expert. Danish food historian. “We roam the forests and eat everything.”

Yes, a lot of people are looking for ingredients, she said. Some people may use evergreens to infuse spirits or smoke other ingredients. And distinguished chefs in innovative restaurants such as orwhere diners are also served grilled reindeer heart on a bed of fresh pine nuts user Evergreen trees for ingredients.

But Ms. Bauer had only heard of home cooks in Denmark eating their holiday trees during bad times, such as during World War II. Cookbooks of the time indicate that people sometimes used Christmas trees for tea during food shortages, she said.

She was unequivocally frank about the region’s cuisine: “It’s not traditional to eat your own Christmas tree in Scandinavia.”

Cuba Requirt Contributed to reports.