The toxic and hallucinogenic weed that contaminated recalled bagged baby spinach products around Australia last week and made more than 120 folks sick has finally been identified.
The culprit is thornapple — a type of nightshade — also known as jimsonweed or Datura stramonium.
Riviera Farms announced on Wednesday night Victorian Health Department experts “have confirmed the spinach was contaminated with a weed called thornapple”.
“The investigations have not identified any other potential chemical, herbicide or other types of contaminant,” a spokesperson said in a statement
A Riviera Farms spokesperson said last week: “As soon as we were advised of the possible weed contamination from one of our customers, we immediately advised them to remove our impacted spinach from their shelves and contacted state health and federal food authorities,” the statement said.
“There is no suggestion, and to our knowledge no possibility, that any other products have been impacted by this weed.
“Riviera Farms has been in the business of providing fresh food since the 1880s, and we are saddened to confirm that we have likely had our first-ever significant contamination incident.”
