Contaminated spinach causes significant hallucinations in nine Australians

Aus­tralian health offi­cials have report­ed nine peo­ple in Syd­ney had ‘tox­ic reac­tions’, includ­ing hal­lu­ci­na­tions, from a batch of spinach thought to con­tain ‘inci­den­tal contaminants’.

The New South Wales Depart­ment of Health report­ed that con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed spinach from Riv­iera Farms pur­chased from whole­sale giant Cost­co caused a “pos­si­ble food-relat­ed tox­ic reac­tion” and peo­ple in four house­holds received med­ical attention.

Ini­tial inves­ti­ga­tions sug­gest the reac­tion was caused by the pres­ence of “inci­den­tal con­t­a­m­i­nants in food,” health offi­cials said.

Health offi­cials have warned that “seri­ous” symp­toms such as delir­i­um, con­fu­sion, hal­lu­ci­na­tions, rapid heart­beat and blurred vision can occur in asso­ci­a­tion with spinach consumption.

Baby spinach pur­chased at Cost­co with an expi­ra­tion date of Dec. 16 “is not safe to eat and should be thrown out if you have it,” offi­cials said.

Dr. Dar­ren Roberts, med­ical direc­tor of the New South Wales Poi­son Infor­ma­tion Cen­ter, cit­ed an arti­cle in the Syd­ney Morn­ing Her­ald, reveal­ing that some patients have been unwell for more than a day after the onset of symptoms.

He said, “Patients who got very sick to the point where they had severe hal­lu­ci­na­tions of see­ing things that did­n’t exist. They could­n’t real­ly explain ‘what happened.’

“I’m glad there are no deaths, and I hope it stays that way, but these peo­ple are seri­ous­ly ill.”