The City of Ghent's advice to eat your Christmas tree after the festivities has attracted the attention of journalists across the globe. The New York Times, Britain’s the Guardian, France’s Le Figaro and even Spanish-speaking and Chinese media have all carried reports on the bizarre ‘climate-friendly’ tip urging Ghentians to boil the needles from their Christmas tree and incorporate them into butter.
New York Times, Le Figaro and the Guardian: Ghent’s advice to eat your Christmas tree is world news
Colin Clapson
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Updated:
Belgium’s Federal Food Safety Agency was quick to respond, warning the public at large not to follow the advice of Ghent's city fathers, ‘because Christmas trees are not meant to enter the food chain’.
Foreign newspapers too picked up the story! The New York Times headlined ‘Please don't eat your Christmas tree, Belgium urges the public’. Britain’s the Guardian reads ‘A tree is just for Christmas, not for dinner, Belgian food agency warns’.
A similar title appears in France’s Le Figaro: ‘Manger son sapin de Noël? Les autorités belges recadrent la ville de Gand’ (Eating your Christmas tree? Belgian authorities slap Ghent on the wrist).
Ghent originally launched its advice to get people to think twice about single-use items like Christmas trees that they buy.
In Sweden, they only use young shoots
The City of Ghent sought inspiration in Scandinavia, where pine needles are used in several beverages and food products, but the Swedish authorities concur with the Belgian Food Safety Agency’s advice. You can make herbal tea, beer or syrup from pine needles, ‘but only when they are collected under good conditions and at the right time of year in the forest’.
Anneli Widenfalk of the Swedish Food Agency notes that this does not apply to Christmas trees, as they may have been treated with plant protection products like pesticides not allowed on edible crops.
Swedes mainly use young shoots, picked in May or June, to cook with and consume them in small quantities. Swedes even enjoy spruce beer that was brewed by Vikings as far back as 1,000 years ago, says family-owned company Smålandsgran, a purveyor of Swedish Christmas trees.